YEREVAN, March 21 Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Speaking at a nuclear energy summit in Brussels on Thursday, he called the Soviet-era Armenian nuclear power plant a symbol of the country's sovereignty.
The Prime Minister pointed out that for decades the nuclear power plant has served as an essential element of the country's energy system, ensuring stability and sustainability of energy production. “Currently, about 30% of the electricity in our country is generated by nuclear energy. Our path to this point has been thorny, overshadowed by the dramatic period of closure of the nuclear power plant. Today we can proudly say that, among other things, it also symbolizes and strengthens our sovereignty «, the government press service quotes Pashinyan as saying.
He noted that Yerevan is committed to maintaining the highest standards of nuclear safety and security in the operation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, and this commitment underlies the large-scale modernization and re-equipment of the plant carried out in recent years, which allowed the operation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant to be extended until 2026.
“With such experience and established priorities, Armenia, along with many countries present here, has decided to extend the life of its nuclear power plant from 2026 to 2036… This extension will lay a solid foundation for a smooth transition to a new power unit at the end of the extended period of operation of the ANPP, which is our ultimate goal,” Pashinyan said on Thursday.
According to him, in this regard, Armenia is committed to developing close cooperation and using the experience of both the IAEA and partner countries to determine the optimal solution for replacing the existing power unit.
Armenia has one nuclear power plant, it is located near the city of Metsamor, 30 kilometers south of Yerevan. There are two power units based on earthquake-resistant reactors of the VVER-440 type, commissioned in 1976 and 1980. The nuclear power plant was shut down in March 1989 after the Spitak earthquake, but the second power unit was re-launched in November 1995 due to the energy crisis in the republic. With the help of Rosatom, its modernization was completed in 2021. The program of the Armenian government provides for the extension of the operating life of the existing nuclear power plant unit until 2026, as well as the phased commissioning of new units. We are talking about the possibility of building a medium-power unit or low-power units. Earlier, the Armenian government adopted a resolution to begin a process aimed at extending the life of the Armenian nuclear power plant until 2036.
In December 2023, CJSC «Armenian NPP» signed a contract with the company «Rusatom Service» — the integrator of the service offer of the Rosatom State Corporation for nuclear power plants abroad — a framework contract for the implementation of a set of measures to re-extend the service life of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP .