Construction of new nuclear power unit in Armenia is estimated to cost about $5 billion

YEREVAN, November 2. /ARKA/. Construction of a new 1,000-megawatt nuclear power unit in Armenia is estimated to cost about $5 billion, Ashot Martirosyan, the head of the State Committee on Nuclear Safety, told journalists on Friday. 

He said that this estimation is not final, since it will be necessary to strengthen Armenian Nuclear Power Plant’s safety, which may increase the cost of the project.

 

The head of the committee said that the launch of the construction depends on financial resources. He said Russian AES-92 pressurized light-water reactor will be used as nuclear island. AES-92 is a new generation of the Soviet-era VVER reactors that has been licensed by regulatory authorities in Russia and declared to meet safety requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

It was reported earlier that equipment for the nuclear island of Armenian Nuclear Power Plant’s new unit is already reserved at Russia’s Rosatom. 

Martirosyan said that the government will look into the new unit’s safety parameters and a draft government decision on a methodology to gauge seismic threat. 

“I mean the work on setting norms for construction of the nuclear power plant is continuing, and later new approaches to be adopted by the international community will be taken into account in the normative base,” he said. 

The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, which accounts for about 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity, is located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. It started operating in 1976. Now only one of its two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors operates now. Armenian authorities said they will build a new nuclear power plant to replace the aging Armenian Nuclear Power Plant. Armenian government extended the plant’s service life for ten years. ($1 – AMD 405.96).-0--