Extending service life of Armenian NPP will not affect its safe operation

YEREVAN, November 6. / ARKA /. An Armenian government official downplayed today speculation that the extension of the service life of the Armenian nuclear power plant in Metsamor by 10 years may pose a threat to its safe operation. 

Speaking at a parliament debate on next year’s draft budget deputy energy and natural resources minister Ara Simonyan disagreed with a lawmaker from the oppositional Armenian National Congress, Hrant Bagratyan who expressed fears that the move poses a threat to the plant’s safe work..

"I can not agree with this allegation. The safe operation of the facility is a priority during all the studies, and I can say that at this point we have not fixed any dangerous development. Moreover, all the studies and the stress tests give us reason to extend the service life of the plant. We would not have done so in case of having a slightest doubt,’ he said.

According to Armenian government figures, Yerevan received over $130 million worth of assistance from the United States, the European 

Union, Russia and other international bodies to upgrade the plant’s safety. 

The deputy minister said a delegation of Russian Rosatom nuclear agency visited Armenia in late October and agreed to help draw up a program of activities to raise the safe operation of the plant for the next ten years. The plan of actions will be ready next August and will be sent to government’s approval. He said the government will have to determine the sources of funding. Simonyan said the government’s plan was approved by IAEA and the U.S. government has already expressed its willingness to assist in the effort to extend the service life of the plant.

The Metsamor plant located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed some 25,000 people and devastated much of northern Armenia. One of the plant’s two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995. Armenian authorities said they will build a new nuclear power plant to replace the aging Metsamor plant. The new plant is supposed to operate at twice the capacity of the Soviet-constructed facility. Metsamor currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia's electricity. But the government has yet to attract funding for the project that was estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study to cost at as much as $5 billion. -0-