ArmInfo.The Armenian and Russian sides will soon start discussing the issue of the extension of service life of the Armenian nuclear power plant until 2031. Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration of the Republic of Armenia Hakob Vardanyan announced this in the parliament. The
Deputy Minister informed that the concept of extending the life of the ANPP is already ready and suggests increasing the resource of the nuclear power plant after its modernization for 10 years. He expressed the hope that the regulator will provide the ANPP with an appropriate license on the condition that the necessary additional work will be carried out at the plant in 2026. The list of these works has already been prepared, the deputy minister noted.
To note, the other day a key preventive maintenance (PPR-2021) started at the Armenian NPP as part of the project to modernize and extend the life of the plant. The nuclear power plant was shut down for 141 days. This is the longest PPR since the start of the modernization project. Such a long stop is associated with the final important work on the modernization of the power unit. The station is actually prepared for the final part of the work on extending the service life. Annealing of the reactor will be carried out, which will allow the reactor to return to its original state by 80-85%.
To remind, according to the intergovernmental agreement, Russia provided Armenia with a state loan of $ 300 million for the modernization of the second power unit of the ANPP (of which $ 270 million is a loan, $ 30 million is a grant). As of the end of February 2020, the Armenian side has spent about $ 200 million from the amount of the state loan. In April 2019, the Armenian side applied to the Ministry of Finance of Russia with a proposal to roll over the loan, as well as postpone the start of loan repayment (from December 31, 2019 to December 31, 2021) amid the delay in work on the project. Without agreeing, in June 2020, Armenia withdrew from the balance of the Russian loan. Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia Suren Papikyan noted that at this stage the authorities considered it more profitable for the country to find funds from other sources for these purposes.
As regards the ANPP modernization program, Papikyan confirmed that the state corporation "Rosatom" remains the main partner of Armenia (its subsidiary company "Rusatom-Service" is the general contractor of the station modernization program).
