Moscow Center Plans Corporate Audit at Armenian NPP

ArmInfo. From May 20 to 29, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) is scheduled to conduct a corporate peer review by the Moscow Center of the World Association  of NPP Operators (WANO).

This is the press service of the ANPP.According to the source, this check is carried out, as a rule, with a frequency of once every six years, and the last time a  corporate partner check of CJSC "ANPP" was held in June 2013. The CPT  team included 6 experts from Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Iran and  Japan, representing the Moscow and Tokyo regional centers of WANO.  The team is headed by Deputy Director of WANO - MC Sergey Vybornov.As  a standard with which the production activities of EAEO CJSC will be  compared, the WANO guideline "Production objectives and criteria for  their fulfillment" will be used. The state of seven corporate areas  will be checked: leadership, management, oversight and monitoring,  independent oversight, support and efficiency, human resources and  communication.

It should be noted that at present all organizations operating NPPs,  including the Armenian NPP, are members of WANO NPP, which operates  independently of state and regulatory bodies and works solely on  behalf of and in the interests of its members - nuclear power plants.  Membership in WANO allows, taking into account the experience of  other NPPs in its practice, to achieve high results and increase the  reliability of operation of nuclear power plants. Armenia's  cooperation with WANO is not limited to inspections.  Often, the  Association organizes trips to other nuclear power facilities for the  ANPP specialists to study best practices. So, on July 24-28, 2017,  Armenian specialists studied the best practices of Smolensk NPP in  the field of labor protection. This visit was carried out under the  WANO experience sharing program. In addition, with the active  participation of the Association, ANPP employees underwent emergency  response training at the Kola NPP. The participation of  representatives of Armenia in such events can improve their  professionalism, apply advanced practices in the workplace, which,  undoubtedly, contributes to increasing the level of NPP safety.

Recall that the Armenian nuclear power plant continues to implement a  program to extend the life of the second unit. The main objectives of  the project are the restoration of the resource and the extension of  the plant to 10 years, improving the safety and efficiency of nuclear  power plants. In the current year, it is envisaged to replace the  second turbo generator, the automatic control system at the stations,  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. The annealing itself will be carried out in 2020. All work on  the project will be completed by the end of 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, in connection with the acute  energy crisis, the second 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 by 10 years - until 2026.  Completion is scheduled for 2021. The government of the Russian  Federation has allocated Armenia for these purposes a state export  credit in the amount of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million.