ArmInfo.There is no panic at the Armenian nuclear power plant in connection with Azerbaijan's threats to launch a missile strike at the station. Garegin Baghramyan, Chairman of the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission, stated this in an interview with journalists on November 3.
According to him, all previously planned works are being implemented at the station. In wartime, other similar capacities operate, which are necessary in the event of a shutdown of a particular power plant.
This is necessary so that there are no problems with the supply of electricity in the republic during wartime. The head of PSRC stressed that in 2021 the Armenian NPP will be shut down for 120 days in order to carry out large-scale work. Thus, the program to extend the life of the second power unit of the plant will enter the final stage. For this reason, the station will stay longer than usual.
Note that in 2021, a large amount of work is to be done at the Armenian NPP. In particular, there will be a restoration annealing the reactor vessel, modernized the emergency core cooling system, and the reliable power supply system. A few days ago, an installation for the reduction annealing (heat treatment) of the reactor vessel metal was delivered to the Armenian NPP. The station will be prepared for the final part of the life extension work, which will take place in 2021. It is in the next year that the reactor will be annealed, which will allow the reactor to return to its original state by 80-85%. The procedure will be carried out by several organizations, each of which is responsible for its own area of work.
To remind, a budget loan of 63.2 billion drams (about $ 130 million) will be provided to complete the station's program. For the implementation of the program, Armenia previously attracted a loan of $ 270 million from the Russian Federation and a grant of $ 30 million at 3% per annum, and as of today, the residual resource of these funds was $ 107 million. For objective and subjective reasons, it was not possible to agree with Russian partners on this residual resource. For this reason, a decision was made to attract a budgetary loan of 63 billion drams. The maturity of each tranche is 12 years, of which the first 2 years will be concessional. The interest rate will be equivalent to the interest rate of the borrowed funds of the Russian Federation raised earlier.
