This year, during the scheduled outage the basic activities of the ANPP Unit 2 modernization final stage will be implemented. The purpose of  E. Martirosyan’s, HAEK CJSC Director General, and Movses Vardanayan’s, HAEK CJSC First Deputy Director General-ANPP Director, business trip to the Russian Federation in the delegation headed by Hakob Vardanyan, the Deputy Minister of the RA Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, was the discussion of a number of crucial activities scheduled for Outage-2021 141-day shutdown.

For the experience exchange related to issues of NPP operating life re-extension, our delegation attended the Kola NPP (which was preceded by M. Vardanyan’s one-week visit to Novovoronezh NPP). The Novovoronezh and Kola NPPs were not chosen by chance: they are as close as possible to the Armenian NPP both, in terms of their design and their operating lifetime. It is typical that  in 2018 at the Kola NPP, for the first time in Nuclear Power Hystory of Russia, the Unit was  successfully commissioned following the operating lifetime re-extension activities. Taking into account the extensive experience of our colleagues in this field, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will develop our concept of measures aimed at safety enhancement for Unit 2 operating life re-extension, which in the second half of the year will be submitted to the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the Regulatory Body for appropriate decisions.

The agenda of the working meetings held in Moscow with the management of Experimental Design Bureau «Gydropress» JSC and «Rosatom» State Corporation already included general questions related to the annealing of the reactor vessel metal and modernization of the Unit. It should be recalled that, in addition to the reactor vessel metal-annealing activities, which will be the key work during the long-term shutdown of the Unit this year, also activities on modernization of the Emergency Core Cooling System, Spray System components, Reliable Power Supply System and a number of other systems and equipment are envisaged. They will be implemented with the participation of both, the Armenian specialists and numerous specialists of a number of Russian companies engaged by our main contractor "Rusatom Service" JSC, who have extensive experience in the field of nuclear energy.

At the conclusion of the meetings, the parties highlighted the importance and responsibility of mutual cooperation, especially at such a crucial time for the ANPP.