17 September, 1966 – a decisive date for the Republic of Armenia (Armenian SSR at that time). On that day a joint decision was made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on construction of a nuclear power plant in Armenia (the first and the only one in the region). 
This decision was, of course, preceded by numerous discussions, agreements, siting, selection of the reactor type, feasibility study and other administrative and organizational activities.  
Within that period the thermal power plants and hydro-power plants fully supplied the energy needs in the republic, and no work had been implemented in the nuclear energy area.   
More than 50 scientists of Armenian descent made a significant contribution to the development of nuclear industry of the USSR, however, in the republic itself practically there were neither specialists, nor an appropriate scientific and technical infrastructure.  
The Armenian NPP design, approved in 1969, was developed by the Gorky Division of «Atomteploelectroproject» (“Атомтеплоэлектропроект”) Institute. The main difficulties, the designers encountered, were related to high seismicity of the ANPP location area, in complete absence of a standards basis.  
Individual systems and assembly units of the ANPP under construction were designed by more than 50 design-construction and scientific-research organizations of the USSR, namely, «Teploelectroproject» (“Теплоэлектропроект”), Institute of Leningrad, «Armgidroenergoproject», «Armelectrosetproject» (“Армгидроэнергопроект”, “Армэлектросетьпроект”) Institutes of Armenia and so on. 
The major equipment was manufactured and supplied to the construction site by such enterprises as «Izhorskie zavody» (“Ижорские заводы”), ZiO-Podolsk (ЗиО-Подольск), «Uralmash» (“Уралмаш”), «Kirovsky zavod» (“Кировский завод”), Kharkov Turbine Plant and so on.   
The construction of the Armenian NPP was started in 1970 and already in 1976 the ANPP Unit 1 was put into commercial operation.  
Both Armenian and Russian specialists participated in the construction and later installation activities. All in all, more than three thousand employees from the republics of the USSR were involved in the construction, installation and commissioning.
The scientific supervision of the commissioning and afterwards operation of the ANPP units was implemented by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.
At the initial stage the plant was operated jointly with Russian specialists and only in ten years, after training and probation of the local staff it became possible to fully ensure the operation of the plant using its own resources.  
Currently the Armenian NPP is fully staffed by professional personnel having sufficient experience and qualification. The share of the Armenian NPP in the overall production of the electricity generated in the republic is about 40%. 
The nuclear power plant is one of the main sources of electricity production in Armenia and plays a crucial role in the national power supply.