Europe's largest nuclear reactor, Finland's Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) will start regular production on Sunday, its operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) announced.
It is expected that this will boost energy security in the region to which Russia cut off gas and electricity supplies.
Nuclear power remains controversial in Europe, primarily due to safety concerns, and news of the OL3 launch comes as Germany shuts down its last three reactors, while Sweden, France, Britain and others plan new developments, Reuters reports.
Reactor operator TVO, which is owned by Finnish company Fortum and a consortium of energy and industrial companies, said the unit is expected to meet about 14 percent of Finland's electricity needs, reducing the need for imports from Sweden and Norway.
Construction of the 1,6 gigawatt reactor, the first new nuclear power plant in Finland in more than four decades and the first in Europe in 16 years, began in 2005.
The plant was originally supposed to open four years later, but was plagued by technical problems.
The OL3 first entered test production for Finland's national power grid in March last year, after which it was expected to enter regular production four months later but instead suffered a series of breakdowns and outages that took several months to repair.
As a result of the launch, analysts say Finland, as the only Nordic country with a large electricity deficit, can expect lower electricity costs.
Russian electricity exports to Finland ended last May when Russian company Inter RAO said it had not been paid for the power it sold, a consequence of the widening gap between Moscow and Europe over the war in Ukraine.
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