Energy Ministry of Armenia: Armenian nuclear power plant (NPP) to be taken offline for regularly scheduled maintenance on September 20

ArmInfo. Ministry of  Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia reports that the Armenian  nuclear power plant (NPP) will be taken offline for regularly  scheduled maintenance on September 20.

The maintenance will continue until November 20 under the Lifetime  Extension Project of Unit No.2 of the Armenian NPP, according to the  Ministry press-office. The scheduled maintenance will not affect the  electricity price.

Earlier, Movses Vardanyan, the Armenian NPP Director General, told  ArmInfo the Plant will be taken offline for regularly scheduled  maintenance on September 20 until November 20.Standard procedures  will be carried out within the two months of the plant's suspension.  In addition, under the Lifetime Extension Project of Unit No.2 of the  Armenian NPP, a complex of measures will be taken to probe the state  of the reactor vessel and the equipment of the primary coolant  equipment of the nuclear island. Afterwards, the modernization  project will undergo changes basing on the accurate data on the state  of the equipment, metal, management system pipelines and many others.

"It is important to make sure that the equipment of the Plant is  ready for further service," Movses Vardanyan said.

After the maintenance, the NPP leadership will apply to the State  Committee Regulating Nuclear Security for permission for further  operation. 

Part of the maintenance activities will be funded from the Russian  loan of 270 million dollars. 5.7 million dollars will be provided for  the operation inspection. Russian Vnesheconombank provides the credit  funds after signing of the necessary acts on it. By the end of the  year, acts for a total of 27 million dollars will be signed.   Besides, there is an advance amount that is provided from the Russian  grant of 30 million dollars.  Contracts for 180 million dollars will  be made by the end of 2016 to import turbo-aggregates, organize  capital repair of 4 diesel generator pumps and other activities. 

After the maintenance, a final program to extend the lifetime of the  unit No.2 for 10 years will be developed.  Vardanyan recalled that  the decision to extend the lifetime of the power unit for 10 years  was adopted by the government of Armenia, but the new equipment to be  installed at the Plant is designed for 30 years. In his words, in  2026, it will be possible to extend the lifetime again but with  minimum costs.  In September 2016 the lifetime service of the unit  No.2 of the Armenian NPP will be 30 years and theoretically the plant  will be able to generate power for another 30 years after the  necessary activities. 

"After the maintenance activities, the capacity of the Plant will  increase by 40-50MW and it will be able to generate additional  400million kWh electric power without additional fueling," Vardanyan  said. 

To service the Russian loan, after 2020 the NPP is going to apply to  the Regulator to raise the tariff for the Plant.  However, if the  relevant funds are saved and the 200 mln USD project is implemented,  the need to raise the tariff will fall off. The loan will be serviced  at the expense of spare megawatts. "Anyway, the tariff is most likely  to grow and this will happen after 2020," he said.