Helsinki - The construction schedule for Finland's fifth nuclear reactor has run into a new delay, Finnish power company Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said Friday.

Work on the third reactor at Olkiluoto, south-western Finland, began in 2005. Power generation was now slated to begin in 2012 instead of 2011, TVO said Friday.

Two of the country's four operating reactors are also located at Olkiluoto.

TVO said the "the reactor plant civil construction works will take several months longer than earlier estimated."

A TVO spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the delays were linked to the casting of the plant's concrete structures.

The plant is being built by a French-German consortium formed by Areva and Siemens which is delivering the turbine.

Jouni Silvennoinen, TVO project director for the new reactor, said in a statement that the group "has a fixed-price plant supply contract and the company is not in a process of agreeing with the plant supplier upon sharing Areva's losses."

Earlier this year, the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) rejected claims of poor quality welding work conducted at the Olkiluoto site. (dpa)