ArmInfo.Armenia requests Russia to postpone the payment of the loan provided by Moscow for the modernization of the Armenian NPP, since the only source of payments is the sale of electricity received from it. The head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia Tigran Melkonyan told this at the 19th meeting of the intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, which had been held in Moscow the day before, the First Russian portal reports.
"I want to raise an issue related to the delay in work related to the implementation of the project to extend the life of the Armenian NPP. We found several reasons, both objective and subjective," he said. In order to successfully complete the project, it is necessary to extend the term of the loan, the official said. In addition, it is necessary to resolve the issue of postponing the start of loan repayment, since so far the only source of annual payments on the loan remains funds received from the sale of electricity by the Armenian NPP, Melkonyan explained.
To recall, the main objectives of the project to extend the period operation of the 2nd power unit of the Armenian NPP are the restoration of resource and extension of the station to 10 years (until 2026), improving the safety and efficiency of the nuclear power plant. This year it is planned to replace the second turbine generator, an automatic control system at the station, to carry out repair work on the cooling towers. In addition, work will be carried out to prepare for processing the dome of the reactor, which will be subjected to temperature treatment (annealing), in order to increase its strength to resist neutron fluxes. Annealing itself will be held in 2020. All work on the project will be completed by the end of 2021. In this regard, Armenia intends to raise with the Russian government the issue of the transfer of work and loan payments from 2019 to 2021.
The Armenian NPP consists of two units with Soviet (Russian) VVER reactors. The first unit was commissioned in 1976, the second in 1980. In March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake, which killed 25 thousand people, the station was stopped. In November 1995, due to the acute energy crisis, the second power unit of the plant with a capacity of 407.5 MW was activated. In March 2014, the Armenian government decided to extend the life of the second power unit for 10 years - until 2026. Completion is scheduled for 2019. The government of the Russian Federation allocated a state export credit to Armenia in the amount of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million for this purpose. The loan was granted for a period of 15 years with a grace period for payments in the first 3 years. The interest rate is 3%.
