ArmInfo.We intend to re-equip the Armenian NPP at the expense of our budget funds. This was stated by Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan in an interview with Interfax, answering the question that in June the Russian Ambassador to Armenia stated that Moscow and Yerevan are continuing to discuss the issue of extending the loan for the modernization of the Metsamor NPP, and whether such discussions are underway now.
''And in this sense, the possibility of new loans is considered taking into account the fact that we are doing this at the expense of our own resources. Discussions are ongoing. Our two states have certain interests, deep relations, they have the potential to come to an agreement, "the Foreign Minister noted.
It should be noted that for the implementation of the Armenian nuclear power plant project, a budget loan of 63.2 billion drams (about $ 130 million) will be provided. Earlier, Armenia attracted a loan of $ 270 million and a grant of $ 30 million from the Russian Federation, and as of today, the residual resource of these funds was $ 107 million. For objective and subjective reasons, it was not possible to agree with Russian partners on this residual resource. For this reason, a decision was made to attract a budgetary loan of 63 billion drams. In 2020, the Armenian NPP will receive 18.7 billion drams from these funds, in 2021 - 31.5 billion drams and in 2022 - 13 billion drams. The maturity of each tranche is 12 years, of which the first 2 years will be concessional. The interest rate will be equivalent to the interest rate of the borrowed funds of the Russian Federation raised earlier. The loan will be repaid twice a year in equal proportions on June 25 and December 25 of each year, and interest will be paid from December 25, 2020 with semi-annual payments - June 25 and December 25 of each year. The loan is provided without collateral.
To recall, the loan was provided by the Russian government to Armenia for a period of 15 years with a grace period for payments in the first three years. This deadline expired on December 31, 2019. Moreover, the annual interest rate is 3%.
The Armenian NPP consists of two units with Soviet (Russian) VVER reactors. The first unit was put into operation in 1976, the second in 1980. In March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake, which killed 25 thousand people, the work of the station was stopped. In November 1995, in connection with an acute energy crisis, the second power unit of the station with a capacity of 407.5 MW was put into operation. In March 2014, the Armenian government made a decision to extend the life of the second power unit by 10 years - until December 2016.
