Friday, April 5 2019 13:03

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%.