ArmInfo. Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia Gnel Sanosyan paid a familiarization visit to the Armenian NPP in Metsamor.
According to the press service of the Ministry, Sanosyan examined the territory of the NPP, the turbine shop, got acquainted with the main technical features of the NPP, equipment, visited the control panel of the power unit, where he got acquainted with the control and safety systems of the ANPP, followed the work of the personnel.
In the engine room of the ANPP turbine-generator building, the Minister was informed in detail about the progress of preventive maintenance work (PPR-2021, for 141 days) as part of the project to modernize and extend the life of modernization of the 2nd power unit, systems and equipment being repaired and upgraded.
Minister Gnel Sanosyan, stressing the importance of continuing the institutional knowledge of the sector, called on the experienced specialists of the ANPP to transfer the knowledge and experience accumulated as a result of many years of work to their young colleagues. "Our country at this post-war stage is in a difficult reality, each of us needs to revise our work, treat it in a new way, no matter how long we have been in this position. It is necessary to see what else needs to be done to make our work even more effective, so that our work brings more benefits to our state and economy, since a lot depends on the efforts of each of us, "said Sanosyan.
To recall, in early June, a key preventive maintenance (PPR-2021) started at the Armenian NPP as part of a 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 the extension of the service life. And the annealing of the reactor will make it possible to return it to its original state by 80-85% (on August 6, the ANPP press service reported that the Armenian NPP completed work on the recovery annealing of the WWER-440 reactor vessel of power unit No. 2. Work at the station is carried out in order to extend the service life NPP until 2026). 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).
Earlier it was reported that the Armenian and Russian sides would soon start discussing the issue of extending the resource of the Armenian nuclear power plant until 2031. The concept for extending the life of the ANPP is already ready and suggests increasing the resource of the nuclear power plant after its modernization by 10 years. At the same time, the regulator will provide the ANPP with an appropriate license on the condition that in 2026 the necessary additional work will be carried out at the plant to further extend its life. The list of these works has already been prepared.
