General Director: By 2019 it will not be possible to complete the program of modernization of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP

ArmInfo. Today it becomes obvious that by 2019 it will not be possible to complete the program of modernization of the second power unit of the Armenian nuclear power plant. Movses Vardanyan, general director of the plant said in conversation with the ArmInfo correspondent.

According to him, in 2019 agreements with the Russian side will be suspended, and the program will be continued until 2021 by own forces, or the project will be extended with the participation of the Russian side. Nevertheless, the main part of the program to extend the life of the plant will be completed by the deadline - by the end of 2019. The problem remains the solution of the issue of the utilization of nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel. The program, according to the CEO, has already been developed, but its implementation will require longer terms, and the ANPP intends to connect its Russian partners to its implementation.

Movses Vardanyan stressed that from mid-April 2018 the plant will be partially stopped. In particular, one of the turbines will be stopped. In mid-June, the entire block will be completely stopped, during which refueling will be performed. From August 15, the unit will go into operation, and in December an upgraded turbine will be commissioned.

The general director noted that until 2021 the plant has a license to produce electricity. Nevertheless, next year, due to long downtime (six months), the plant will not have 1.860 billion kWh of electricity, but this fact will not become the basis for applying to the regulatory body to increase the tariff from the nuclear power plant. "There are savings from previous years, due to which the tariff will not increase," the ANPP Director General said.

The Armenian nuclear power plant consists of two units with Soviet (Russian) WWER reactors. The first unit was commissioned in 1976, the second - in 1980. In March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake, which killed 25 thousand people, the plant's work was stopped. In November 1995, in connection with the most acute energy crisis, the second power unit of the plant with a capacity of 407.5 MW was involved. In March 2014, the Armenian government decided to extend the life of the second power unit by 10 years - until 2026. The project is coordinated by the subsidiary structure of the State Corporation Rosatom - JSC Rusatom Service. Completion of work is planned for 2019. The Government of the Russian Federation allocated a $ 270 million state export loan to Armenia and a $ 30 million grant for these purposes. In March 2015, the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) was established to implement the program. So far, there have been five meetings of the JCC.