Armen Movsisyan, Armenia's minister of energy and natural resources, said the nation's nuclear power plant will be closed only after the construction of new nuclear power block, Arka New Agency reported. According to Armen Movsisyan, the two reactors will be functioning in Armenia for a certain period of time. Maximum capacities of the functioning energy block will be used.
Recently Armen Movsisyan met with the management of Ukrainian holding on production of turbines “Turboatom” in Yerevan.
“Viktor Subotin, General Director of “Turboatom announced about their willingness of investing 200 million dollars for modernization of Armenian Nuclear Power Station which will allow to prolong the dates of exploitation of the functioning station.
“Ukrainian party suggested us to discuss such an opportunity and see whether it is advantageous for us. Currently we are discussing this proposal. But prolongation of exploitation date of Armenian Nuclear Power Station can only allow the Committee of International Experts”, said Movsisyan. In 2016 it is planned to perform global expertise of the station and its technical state, after which decision will be made whether to continue exploitation or not. “It is early to speak about prolongation of exploitation dates of the station,” said Movsisyan.
The two power blocks of the Armenian power station are equipped by Russian reactor ????-440 of first generation. Presently, functioning of the first block is terminated. The second block with the capacity of 407.5 MVt generates in average from 40% to 50% energy in Armenia. According to the assessments of the experts, the station can function till 2016.
Since September 2003 till 2013, Armenian Nuclear Power Station is under trust management of Open JSC “INTER RAO ES”. The date of license of Armenian Nuclear Power Station for the production of energy was extended on November 3, 2009 till June 10, 2014. Armenia intends to construct new block of Armenian nuclear power station with the capacity of about 1000 MVt. This project can cost around $5 billion. In 2006, the Parliament of Armenia has canceled the monopoly of the right of possessing new nuclear blocks.
The construction works are scheduled to begin from 2011 and the new block will function till 2017. Till that time the functioning of the power block will be stopped.