The Armenian delegation headed by Akob Vardanyan, the minister for territorial administration and infrastructures of the Republic of Armenia, paid a working visit to the Russian Federation. The delegation also included Director General of the Armenian NPP Eduard Martirosyan, First Deputy Director General of ZAO AAEK, Director of the Armenian NPP Movses Vardanyan.

As part of their visit, the members of the delegation visited the Kola nuclear power plant in the Murmansk region, met the leaders of OKB Gidropress and conducted a number of bilateral meetings.

“The Armenian NPP is a guarantee of our safety, as well as of the development of Armenian economy. To stress the importance of this NPP for our country, I can say that we are already taking steps to further develop the industry and to extend the service life of the power plant until at least 2036. The main purpose of the trip to the Russian Federation is acquaintance with the second-time service life extension of the Kola NPP; this project is currently studied in detail in Armenia,” said Deputy minister for territorial administration and infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia Akob Vardanyan.

The Armenian specialists and the Russian specialists from the Kola NPP, Rosenergoatom and Rusatom Service JSC have discussed the matters concerning the events realization within the framework of the second service life extension of NPU No. 2 of ANPP.

Business Development Director of Rosenergoatom JSC (part of Rosatom State Corporation and the operator of all Russian NPPs) Nikita Konstantinov commented on the service life extension of the Armenian NPP: “This is a long-term project that has been in development for more than 5 years. This is a large, significant program for us, which once again demonstrates that Rosenergoatom, being one of the largest nuclear energy companies in the world, can perform the entire range of works to extend the life of any power unit of a Soviet or Russian project, both in Russia (see the Kola NPP) and abroad. Employees of the Kola NPP have taken into account the experience gained and are taking an active part both in working directly on site, and in providing expert assistance and advice to the subsidiaries of the Company that are participating in the Armenian project."

The organization of modernization works at the Armenian NPP is carried out by Rusatom Service JSC, which is part of the Electric Power Division of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom. “During the period of cooperation, a large-scale program to extend the life of the ANPP was implemented in the amount of about 200 million dollars. The program included the delivery of several sets of new equipment, which were installed in a short time. The task that we are implementing this year is the annealing of the reactor vessel, after which its physical and mechanical properties will be restored, and the Armenian NPP can be operated after 2026. In this regard, the Armenian colleagues were interested in the experience the specialists of the Kola NPP had, as they had already carried out this complex technological operation. We hope that by the end of 2021, Armenia will receive a more efficient nuclear power plant, and its safety will be close to world standards,” said Director General of Rusatom Service JSC Yevgeny Salkov.

Armenian and Russian specialists will form a workgroup that will include technicians of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian NPP, ZAO NII Armatom, Scientific Technical Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety, Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee, and on the Russian side, specialists of key Russian enterprises that are working on the service life extension of NPPs, such as Rusatom Service JSC, Atomenergoproyekt JSC, OKB Gidropress, the Kurchatov Institute and Rosenergoatom JSC. These organizations and companies will design a concept of the service life extension of the Armenian NPP after 2026.

The Kola NPP realized a great number of projects aiming to increase the safety level.

The Armenian NPP is currently undergoing final modernization works to extend it until 2026. But the plant can be operated until 2036, as the new preliminary calculations state, and the experience of re-extending the Kola NPP in this matter will be very useful to the Armenian atomic scientists. Russian specialists have always helped us in difficult times: during the construction of a nuclear power plant and in restarting the 2nd power unit; now in extending its service life, because our common task is to maximize the safety, reliability and efficiency of the operation of nuclear power plants,” said the Director General of the Armenian NPP Eduard Martirosyan.