ArmInfo. The first step has been taken to implement a pilot project for the removal of spent nuclear fuel from the Armenian nuclear power plant. Deputy Director General of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant Gera Sevikyan told about this in a conversation with the ArmInfo correspondent.
According to him, in order to implement the project, a joint Armenian-Russian working group has been formed. The project, as the deputy director general noted, is fraught with problems in logistics. The most realistic route is the delivery of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) by rail to Poti, from where there is a ferry to Russia. But in this question there will be negotiations with the Georgian side, to which the corresponding request has already been sent. "As soon as all the details are agreed upon, the representatives of the three states - Armenia, Georgia and Russia will discuss the fundamental possibility and conditions for the implementation of the project," Gera Sevikyan said.
He also said that it is planned to withdraw one echelon of six cars on which containers will be installed. In each of these containers 84 cassettes with spent nuclear fuel will be installed, about 50 tons in total. Moreover, the SNF will be exported not for disposal, but for reprocessing. "In the course of reprocessing, quite expensive elements are being formed - uranium-235 and plutonium. While the Armenian side is not interested in plutonium, uranium can be used to produce fuel for the ANPP. Accordingly, the price of this fuel will be much lower and will be taken into account in our mutual calculations" - Gera Sevikyan stressed, adding that this will be the first and decisive step. "But if the Georgian side fails, then the whole program cannot be implemented," he stated. To recall, on March 12, at the meeting of the Joint Armenian-Russian Coordinating Committee on the modernization and extension of the service life of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP, it was decided to prepare a pilot project for the removal and reprocessing of the SNF batch. According to the official website of the State Committee on Regulation of Nuclear Safety of the Armenian Government, the dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) of the Armenian NPP is operational until 2020. On August 1, 2000, the Gosatomnadzor of the Republic of Armenia issued the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant license to operate the storage facility for a period of 20 years. Storage type NUHOMS-56 consists of 11 horizontal modules with 616 insulating containers. In 2005, the Armenian parliament decided to expand the storage facility, which will make it possible to store up to 1,890 containers for at least 50 years.