General Director: By 2019 it will not be possible to complete the program of modernization of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP

ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia
 Friday


General Director: By 2019 it will not be possible to complete the
program of modernization of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP

Yerevan October 27

Alexander Avanesov. Today it becomes obvious that by 2019 it will not
be possible to complete the program of modernization of the second
power unit of the Armenian nuclear power plant. Movses Vardanyan,
general director of the plant said in conversation with the ArmInfo
correspondent.

According to him, in 2019 agreements with the Russian side will be
suspended, and the program will be continued until 2021 by own forces,
or the project will be extended with the participation of the Russian
side. Nevertheless, the main part of the program to extend the life of
the plant will be completed by the deadline - by the end of 2019. The
problem remains the solution of the issue of the utilization of
nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel. The program, according to the
CEO, has already been developed, but its implementation will require
longer terms, and the ANPP intends to connect its Russian partners to
its implementation.

Movses Vardanyan stressed that from mid-April 2018 the plant will be
partially stopped. In particular, one of the turbines will be stopped.
In mid-June, the entire block will be completely stopped, during which
refueling will be performed. From August 15, the unit will go into
operation, and in December an upgraded turbine will be commissioned.

The general director noted that until 2021 the plant has a license to
produce electricity. Nevertheless, next year, due to long downtime
(six months), the plant will not have 1.860 billion kWh of
electricity, but this fact will not become the basis for applying to
the regulatory body to increase the tariff from the nuclear power
plant. "There are savings from previous years, due to which the tariff
will not increase," the ANPP Director General said.

The Armenian nuclear power plant consists of two units with Soviet
(Russian) WWER reactors. The first unit was commissioned in 1976, the
second - in 1980. In March 1989, after the Spitak earthquake, which
killed 25 thousand people, the plant's work was stopped. In November
1995, in connection with the most acute energy crisis, the second
power unit of the plant with a capacity of 407.5 MW was involved. In
March 2014, the Armenian government decided to extend the life of the
second power unit by 10 years - until 2026. The project is coordinated
by the subsidiary structure of the State Corporation Rosatom - JSC
Rusatom Service. Completion of work is planned for 2019. The
Government of the Russian Federation allocated a $ 270 million state
export loan to Armenia and a $ 30 million grant for these purposes. In
March 2015, the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) was established to
implement the program. So far, there have been five meetings of the
JCC.