Thursday, June 3 2021 18:38

ArmInfo.The Armenian and Russian sides will soon start discussing the issue of the extension of service life of the Armenian nuclear power plant until 2031. Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration of the Republic of Armenia Hakob Vardanyan  announced this in the parliament. The 

Deputy Minister informed that the concept of extending the life of  the ANPP is already ready and suggests increasing the resource of the  nuclear power plant after its modernization for 10 years. He  expressed the hope that the regulator will provide the ANPP with an  appropriate license on the condition that the necessary additional  work will be carried out at the plant in 2026. The list of these  works has already been prepared, the deputy minister noted.

To note, the other day a key preventive maintenance (PPR-2021)  started at the Armenian NPP as part of the project to modernize and  extend the life of the plant. The nuclear power plant was shut down  for 141 days.  This is the longest PPR since the start of the  modernization project. Such a long stop is associated with the final  important work on the modernization of the power unit. The station is  actually prepared for the final part of the work on extending the  service life. Annealing of the reactor will be carried out, which  will allow the reactor to return to its original state by 80-85%.

To remind, according to the intergovernmental agreement, Russia  provided Armenia with a state loan of $ 300 million for the  modernization of the second power unit of the ANPP (of which $ 270  million is a loan, $ 30 million is a grant). As of the end of  February 2020, the Armenian side has spent about $ 200 million from  the amount of the state loan. In April 2019, the Armenian side  applied to the Ministry of Finance of Russia with a proposal to roll  over the loan, as well as postpone the start of loan repayment (from  December 31, 2019 to December 31, 2021) amid the delay in work on the  project.  Without agreeing, in June 2020, Armenia withdrew from the  balance of the Russian loan. Minister of Territorial Administration  and Infrastructures of Armenia Suren Papikyan noted that at this  stage the authorities considered it more profitable for the country  to find funds from other sources for these purposes. 

As regards the ANPP modernization program, Papikyan confirmed that  the state corporation "Rosatom" remains the main partner of Armenia  (its subsidiary company "Rusatom-Service" is the general contractor  of the station modernization program).