Wednesday, March 6 2019 03:39

ArmInfo. Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan on the eve of the day received a delegation led by French Ambassador to Armenia Jonathan Lakot.As the press service of the RA government told ArmInfo, the representative of the  atomic energy commission Alexander Gorbachev and representatives of  the ORANO company (formerly AREVA).

The interlocutors discussed the prospects for deepening the  Armenian-French cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. Avinyan  assured that Armenia highly appreciates the role of the Metsamorka  NPP in the country's energy production capabilities and will continue  to develop nuclear energy. At the same time, he added that the  possibilities of building a new NPP, as well as the involvement of  foreign partners in this project, are currently being studied.The  parties agreed to explore prospects for cooperation in the field of  nuclear energy, in particular, in the fields of production, research  and development, professional exchanges and educational  programs.Earlier, Arminfo reported that with the assistance of the  French government, which provided a loan of 40 million francs in  1995, a special dry spent nuclear fuel storage facility (SNF) was  built at the industrial site of the Armenian nuclear power plant.  This project was implemented under the project and with the help of  the French company AREVA. 

Previously, SNF was to be sent to a specialized Russian enterprise,  but this became impossible after the blockade of Armenia's external  railway lines.At present, the Armenian NPP is implementing a program  to extend the life of the N2 unit for 10 years (until 2026). For  these purposes, the Russian government has provided Armenia with an  export credit of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million. 2019 will  be the most stressful for nuclear workers, since besides the same  amount as in 2018, the amount of work on equipping the turbine hall  (on turbine units 3 and 4 ) the most complicated work on the  modernization of the main security systems should be performed.  According to the safety concept, a substantial increase in the  plant's initial design safety level is envisaged.

 To achieve this goal, it is planned to modernize nine major security  systems, replace the individual elements of the process control and  management of life-support systems of the power unit. Naturally, such  large-scale work can not be performed within the standard duration of  repair campaigns, in connection with which in 2019 the reactor will  be shut down for four months (from June 1 to October 1), and in full,  with both turbines, the unit will work on December 1 2019 years. This  direction is the most time-consuming, responsible and costly  component of the service life extension program.