Again none of the electricity from OL3 is sold directly to consumers so there is no strike price to think about. Instead the investors pay whatever the "at cost

Again none of the electricity from OL3 is sold directly to consumers so there is no strike price to think about. Instead the investors pay whatever the "at cost" price happens to be to run the plant. Also TVO does not have that much debt as most of the money for the reactor came from the investors (debt they took not TVO) Also the current price for the plant is 5.7 billion euros (in the last "official" statement from TVO). It might go up to 7 to 8 billion after the lawsuits etc. Basically the plant was built at fixed cost contract with the builders (Areva and Siemens) taking a huge hit but that is not TVOs problem. The biggest investors in OL3 are paper companies more interested in some guaranteed max price than paying the least by getting as much of their electricity from their own production (the nuclear plants by TVO, their own hydro, etc). Basically they want to be able to say 1 year in advance that paper/paperboard will cost X without taking a huge hit when fulfilling their contracts due to electricity price jumping up. If they happen to find cheaper electricity from somewhere else then it is just a happy accident and more profit for them. Basically OL3 got built as the investors were so happy with the previous 2 reactors at the site so I would think they know how to do it in a profitable way.