Wednesday, March 20 2019 13:38

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.