ArmInfo. Russian state construction office OKB Gidropress jointly with the Armenian Scientific-Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operation (Armatom) will examine the condition of the reactor vessel of Armenian NPP Unit 2, General Director of the Research Institute, Doctor of Engineering, professor Vahram Petrosyan informed ArmInfo.
According to him Gidropress OKB will make calculations, while the institute will prepare the entire engineering base. As the Director informed 5-6 years ago Armatom had prepared safety justification for the Armenian NPP today the two companies will conduct similar work. Petrosyan stressed that all the examinations of the reactor vessel as well as preparation of the relevant report will be finished till the end of the current year, but the first preliminary results of the research will be ready in the upcoming months.
The General Director reminded that the Research Institute was the winner of the first tenders of Rusatom Service on the project of extension of the Armenian NPP life cycle. The matter particularly concerns supply of the two systems of industrial seismic safety by the institute. According to Petrosyan Armenian systems are installed on many NPPs. They proved to be efficient and reliable. "Currently we provide technical assistance to our station but simultaneously we work for both Russian and Ukrainian nuclear plants", the professor emphasized.
Earlier in an interview to ArmInfo Vahram Petrosyan said that two sets of industrial seismic protection systems for the Armenian NPP will be ready by April 2017. "Our bids were 2-3-fold lower than the ones made by the other two big Russian companies, but we do not yield
to foreign analogues by quality. It is natural, as we had a monopoly position by the industrial seismic protection systems not only in the former USSR, but also in other countries using VVER reactors," he said. He said the victory in the tender will help the Research
Institute to operate at full, involve local specialists and ensure tax revenues, which is very important in the current heavy social and economic situation in the country.
Every year, the projects of Rosatom State Corporation involve more and more foreign countries, especially the ones where the Russian corporation implements big projects. Among the suppliers of Rosatom State Corporation are companies from Belarus, Czech Republic,
Hungary, Slovakia, Finland, France, India, China, Vietnam, and other countries. At present, the procurements of Rosatom State Corporation are an open and transparent system with clear rules for clients and suppliers. During the last years, the procurements in the nuclear
sector of Russia increased from 20million to 1trillion rubles annually. The number of suppliers increased from 1,000 to 24,000 companies annually. The Total Economic Impact of the competitive procurement procedures has increased to about 150 billion rubles since 2009. In 2015 alone, the organizations in the nuclear sector made procurements for more than 1 trillion rubles.