Mnatsakanyan: We intend to re-equip the Armenian NPP at the expense  of our own budget funds

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.