RECONSTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT TO BEGIN IN 2017

YEREVAN, January 14. / ARKA /. The reconstruction of the Armenian NPP
will begin in the spring of 2017 and will last for about six months,
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Yervand Zakaryan told a news
conference today.

The minister recalled that in late December 2014 Russia’s government
confirmed its intention to extend a $270-million loan and a $30 million
grant to Armenia for extending the service life of the second unit
of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant until 2016.

He said also the loan will be provided with a 3 percent interest rate
and will be repayable in 15 years.

The minister said the program will be implemented in three stages. The
first preparatory stage has already begun by Russian nuclear agency
Rosatomservice on the basis of an agreement signed by the sides in
late December. The financial agreement will be signed in late February
by finance ministers of the two countries, he said.

The minister said the preparatory work will be carried out in 2015-2016
to get prepared for starting the reconstruction in 2017 spring.

“According to preliminary estimates, the reconstruction will last
for about six months, but more specific terms will be known after
the completion of the preparatory work and specification of the real
amount of planned activities,” said Zakaryan.

He said also that the construction of a new power unit is scheduled
to begin in 2018 and be over in 2026 that will allow to shut down
the operating unit.

The Metsamor plant located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was
built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake
in 1988 that killed some 25,000 people and devastated much of northern
Armenia.

One of the plant’s two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was
reactivated in 1995. The government wants to build a new facility that
is supposed to operate at twice the capacity of the Soviet-constructed
facility. Metsamor currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia’s
electricity. But the government has yet to attract funding for the
project that was estimated as much as $5 billion.-0-