Armenia and Russia discuss the possibility of extending the life of  the second power unit of the Armenian NPP after 2026

ArmInfo.The interim results of the work carried out in 2020 under the Life Extension  Program of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP, and the work  plan for the modernization of equipment and systems for 2021 became  the subject of a video conference meeting held the day before.  According to the press service of the Armenian NPP, Acting Director  General of ANPP Eduard Martirosyan and Director General of Rusatom  Service Yevgeny Salkov made an introductory speech.

During the meeting, it was noted that a large amount of work is to be  done in 2021. In particular, the recovery annealing of the reactor  vessel will be carried out, the emergency core cooling system and the  reliable power supply system will be modernized. In addition, the  meeting participants considered the issue of re-extending the life of  power unit 2 after 2026.

Back in 2017, ArmInfo, with reference to the NPP management, reported  on the possibility of extending the life of the second power unit  until 2040. So, after 2026, it is planned to carry out an extension  for another five years, after which for another 10 years. A few days  ago for an installation for the reduction annealing (heat treatment)  of the reactor vessel metal was delivered to the Armenian NPP. The  station will be prepared for the final part of the life extension  work, which will take place in 2021. It is in the next year that the  reactor will be annealed, which will allow the reactor to return to  its original state by 80-85%. The procedure will be carried out by  several organizations, each of which is responsible for its own area  of work.

It should be reminded that a budget loan of 63.2 billion drams (about  $ 130 million) will be provided to complete the station's program.  For the implementation of the program, Armenia previously attracted a  loan of $ 270 million from the Russian Federation and a grant of $ 30  million at 3% per annum, and as of today, the residual resource of  these funds amounted to $ 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. 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 from the Russian Federation raised earlier.