HELSINKI Jan 8 (Reuters) - Finnish nuclear power consortium Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) on Thursday said it is looking to cut up to 110 jobs, or 13 percent of its staff, due to lower power prices and soaring costs from its delayed Olkiluoto 3 reactor project.
The start of the reactor, planned to be Finland's fifth and biggest nuclear unit, has been delayed until late 2018, almost a decade later than originally planned.
"Electricity market price has dropped and there are no signs of improvement in the coming foreseeable future. In addition, costs related to nuclear power production have increased and the delay of Olkiluoto 3 project has caused remarkable additional costs," TVO chief executive Jarmo Tanhua said in a statement.
TVO has traded accusations with Areva-Siemens , the consortium building the plant, about who is to blame for delays and extra costs.
The delayed site has also thrown TVO's plan to build a fourth Olkiluoto unit in doubt as the government recently rejected TVO's application to extend the permit. TVO is not keen to build two projects worth billions of euros at the same time.
TVO's owners include Finnish paper companies UPM and Stora Enso as well as utility Fortum.