The start-up of Finland's fifth nuclear reactor, being built by the French-German consortium Areva-Siemens, has been delayed until August 2014, Finnish power company Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said Thursday.

"The automation system will not achieve readiness and also the site itself will not be ready" until August 2014, TVO senior vice president Jouni Silvennoinen told AFP.

The third generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) called Olkiluoto 3, or OL3, is being built at TVO's power plant on the western coast of Finland but the project is already years late and reportedly billions of euros (dollars) over budget.

When the project was launched in 2005, the reactor was supposed to be producing electricity by 2009 but the deadline has been pushed back repeatedly.

Silvennoinen said the companies will continuously evaluate the progress of the reactor.

"We have set targets for 2012, when we see how these targets are met and how the testing goes, then we can judge," he added.