Head of the Committee: The second unit of the Armenian NPP will  resume supplying electricity from mid- September 

ArmInfo. The second unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will resume supplying electricity to the electric power network of Armenia from mid-September of this  year. This was announced on August 30 by Ashot Martirosyan, Chairman  of the State Committee for Regulation of Nuclear Safety under the  Government of Armenia, at a meeting with reporters.  

However, as the head of the Committee noted, this will happen after additional  studies are carried out on the subject of compliance with the safety  standards developed by the Committee, which were approved by the  Armenian government back in 2012. The ANPP CJSC submitted an  application for the resumption of electricity production, which will  be examined by the Committee specialists next week.  In the absence  of comments, the station will receive permission from the Committee  for electricity production from September 10-15, 2019. As of June 1  of this year, Ashot Martirosyan continued, the station was stopped  for scheduled preventive repairs, within the framework of which  measures are also taken to extend the unit's operational life by 10  years. The need to implement the program is due to the fact that back  in September 2016, the design life of the second power unit of the  ANPP has expired. A huge number of organizations are involved in the  project, primarily Russian one, in the person of the chief designer -  the Hydropress company, the National Research Center, Kurchatov  Institute, and many others.  At the first stage - in 2017,  large-scale studies were carried out, and at the second - in  2018-2019 work has begun on the replacement of the main equipment,  first of all, the first and second classes. The entire program is  planned to be completed by the end of 2021.

In general, as Ashot Martirosyan noted, the safety level of the  Armenian nuclear power plant is at a satisfactory level and  corresponds to the safety level of old-style units. The  implementation of the program is under the control of both the IAEA  and the European Union, as well as the regulatory bodies of Armenia  and Russia. In terms of the scope of work, the project is comparable  to 30% of the costs required for the construction of a new nuclear  power unit. A significant part of these works, as noted by the head  of the Committee, has already been done, tests are being carried out  in some sections of the station. In particular, at night, equipment  was tested to ensure the safety of reactor equipment, which showed  the absence of functional changes.  To recall, from June 1 to  September 10, scheduled preventive maintenance is carried out at the  second unit of the nuclear power plant, after which a comprehensive  inspection of the work has to be carried out, and only after that a  permit will be issued. The main objectives of the project to extend  the life of the 2nd power unit of the Armenian nuclear power plant  are to restore the resource and extend the operation of the station  to 10 years (until 2026), increase the level of safety and efficiency  of the nuclear power plant. This year, it is planned to replace the  second turbogenerator at the station, the automatic control system,  and carry out repair work on the cooling towers. In addition, work  will be carried out to prepare for the treatment of the reactor dome,  which will be heat treated (annealed) in order to increase its  strength to resist neutron fluxes.  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 most acute energy crisis, the second power unit  of the station 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. The Government of the  Russian Federation allocated Armenia for this purpose a state export  loan in the amount of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million.