ArmInfo. The strategic program for the development of the energy sector of Armenia until 2040 provides for a repeated extension of the life of the Armenian nuclear power plant after 2026, and in the future, the construction of a new nuclear power plant.
This is stated in the greeting message of the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia Suren Papikyan to the participants of the panel discussion "Prospects for the development of the nuclear industry in Armenia", which took place on March 18 in Yerevan.
As the minister noted, the NPP is a stable supplier of clean energy and it is thanks to this that Armenia will be able to fulfill its obligations under the Paris Agreement on combating climate change. It should be noted that earlier the management of the Armenian NPP has repeatedly announced the availability of a resource to extend the life of the ANPP until 2040 (in 2026 for five years, and in 2030 for 10 years until 2040).
It should be reminded that preparatory work for the recovery annealing of the reactor vessel has started at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant. Annealing of the reactor will be carried out in 2021 during scheduled preventive maintenance at the station. These works are scheduled for May-October. In connection with the annealing of the rector, PPM-2021 will last longer than usual - about 140 days. The annealing technology will restore the physical and mechanical properties of the metal by 80% -85%, and is considered the most effective way to extend the operation of the station all over the world. In addition, the emergency core cooling system and the reliable power supply system will be modernized. The Armenian government provided a budgetary loan in the amount of 63.2 billion drams (about $ 130 million) to complete the ANPP program. For the implementation of the program Armenia earlier 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 63.2 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, attracted earlier.
Since 2015, a modernization project has been implemented at the Armenian NPP. A large amount of work has already been completed: the sprinkler system has been modernized, all equipment subject to inspection (about 5 thousand units) has been inspected, the equipment of the turbine hall has been completely replaced, which made it possible to increase electricity generation by 10-15% with the same fuel consumption. Now the project has entered a decisive stage - work is underway to prepare the second power unit for an additional service life.
