ARMENIAN NPP TO BE STOPPED FROM OCTOBER 1, 2006, FOR PLANNED PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE AND REFUELING

ARMINFO News Agency
September 27, 2006 Wednesday

The Armenian NPP will be stopped for 45 days from October 1, 2006,
for planned preventive maintenance and refueling, the NPP Director
General, Gagik Markossyan, told ArmInfo correspondent.

According to him, it is scheduled to implement five NPP
safety-enhancement measures during this period. The most important
measure is upgrading of the reactor protection system, which is
financed by EU within the frames of the TACIS program with cost of 1,3
mln Euro. The means for NPP safety level increase are traditionally
allocated by the USA, IAEA, EU. The owns means of NPP are aimed
at assemblage and designing. G. Markossyan added the nuclear fuel
in a necessary quantity has been already delivered to NPP 10 days
ago. G. Markossyan hopes all the repair and refueling works will be
carried out at a stated time.

To be noted, the NPP was handed over under financial control of "INTER
RAO UES" CJSC, which is an affiliated structure of RAO "UES of Russia"
and which pays for the delivery of the new batch of nuclear fuel to
NPP. Two power units of Russian model VVR-440 with total capacity of
815 MW are installed at the Armenian NPP. The first unit had been
commissioned in 1976, the second one – in 1980. In the beginning,
1989, the NPP was abandoned for political reasons, and the second power
unit with capacity of 404 MW was restarted in the beginning, 1995.