{"id":11835,"date":"2014-12-23T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vo.afonico-test.ru\/novosti-otrasli\/russia-and-armenia-agree-to-unit-2-life-extension\/"},"modified":"2014-12-23T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T09:00:00","slug":"russia-and-armenia-agree-to-unit-2-life-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/en\/novosti-otrasli\/russia-and-armenia-agree-to-unit-2-life-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia and Armenia agree to unit 2 life extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia and Armenia have signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in extending the operating life of unit 2\u00a0of Armenia\u2019s sole nuclear power plant.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The VVER-440\u00a0unit\u00a0\u2014 which operates at Metsamor, 30\u00a0km from the capital Yerevan\u00a0\u2014 is due to be withdrawn from service in September 2016.<\/p>\n

The agreement was signed on 20\u00a0December by Rosatom director general Sergey Kirienko and Armenia\u2019s energy minister Yervand Zakharyan, Rosatom said yesterday. It will lead to the issuance of a licence to extend the service life of the unit by ten years, until September 2026.<\/p>\n

Rosatom specialists have conducted a preliminary examination of the unit and will produce a comprehensive report before the end of the first quarter of 2015, Rosatom said. Following that report, a training program will ensue. An application for the life extension licence will follow, in September 2016. Upgrade work at the unit is expected to be completed by 2019.<\/p>\n

The work is to be funded by a Russian state loan.<\/p>\n

Two model V-230\u00a0reactors, each of 407\u00a0MWe gross (376\u00a0MWe net), were built at Metsamor on solid basalt and supplied power from 1976\u00a0and 1980\u00a0respectively. The design life was 30\u00a0years. These were the first Russian plants designed to be built in a region of high seismicity and were modified accordingly to be designated V-270. Plans for units 3\u00a0and 4\u00a0at the site were abandoned after the 1986\u00a0Chernobyl accident.<\/p>\n

In December 1988, a powerful earthquake, resulting in the deaths of at least 25,000\u00a0people, occurred in northwestern Armenia. The Metsamor nuclear power plant 75\u00a0km from the epicentre continued operating normally with no damage, but both units were subsequently shut down in 1989\u00a0due to safety concerns regarding seismic vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Unit 1, after 13\u00a0years operation, is now being decommissioned. In 1993, it was decided to restart the second unit due to the severe economic crisis and this was achieved in 1995, after being shut down for more than six years. Since then the International Atomic Energy Agency has been participating in safety improvements at the plant. In September 2013\u00a0Russia announced an agreement to extend the life of the plant by ten years, and in May 2014\u00a0Russia agreed to a $300\u00a0million loan for upgrading the plant to enable life extension to 2026. To effect this, the plant will be shut down for six months in 2017\u00a0to undertake major works.<\/p>\n

All fuel is supplied by Russia, but this incurred significant foreign debt\u00a0\u2014 some $40\u00a0million. As a result, the plant has been operated by a subsidiary of RAO UES and Rosenergoatom since 2003, as part of an arrangement to help pay off those debts to TVEL. This agreement, now with Inter-RAO, was extended by five years in 2008.<\/p>\n

In June 2014\u00a0the Public Services Regulatory Commission of Armenia extended the generating licence of the unit to mid-2019, though the reactor operating licence only runs to 2016.<\/p>\n

In December 2009, the government approved establishment of Metzamorenergoatom, a 50\u201350\u00a0Russian-Armenian joint stock company set up by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources with Atomstroyexport, with shares offered to other investors. This is to build a 1060\u00a0MWe AES-92\u00a0unit (with a VVER-1000\u00a0model V-392\u00a0reactor) with a service life of 60\u00a0years at Metsamor. It would have two natural-draft cooling towers. In March 2010\u00a0an agreement was signed with Rosatom to provide the V-392\u00a0reactor equipment for it. In March 2011\u00a0the environmental assessment report was presented to the Ministry of Nature Protection.<\/p>\n

In August 2010, an intergovernmental agreement was signed to provide that the Russian party will build at least one VVER-1000\u00a0reactor, supply nuclear fuel for it and decommission it. Construction was to commence in 2013\u00a0and was expected to cost $5\u00a0billion. The customer and owner of new reactors, as well as electricity generated, will be Metzamorenergoatom, and Atomstroyexport will be the principal contractor.<\/p>\n

Armenia undertakes to buy all electricity produced at commercial rates, enabling investors\u2019 return on capital, for 20\u00a0years. CJSC Metzamorenergoatom is to fund not less than 40% of the construction, and early in 2012\u00a0Russia agreed to finance 50%, though in late 2013\u00a0this was reported as 35%. In July 2014\u00a0the energy minister said that Russia was expected to provide plant worth $4.5\u00a0billion out of the total $5\u00a0billion.<\/p>\n

In May 2014\u00a0the government approved construction of the new reactor, starting 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia and Armenia have signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in extending the operating life of unit 2\u00a0of Armenia\u2019s sole nuclear power plant. The VVER-440\u00a0unit\u00a0\u2014 which operates at Metsamor, 30\u00a0km from the capital Yerevan\u00a0\u2014 is due to be withdrawn from service in September 2016. The agreement was signed on 20\u00a0December by Rosatom director general Sergey…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-novosti-otrasli"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.6","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ru","en"],"languages":{"ru":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussia and Armenia agree to unit 2 life extension - JSC \u201cVO \u201cSafety\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vosafety.ru\/novosti-otrasli\/russia-and-armenia-agree-to-unit-2-life-extension\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia and Armenia agree to unit 2 life extension - 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