Stay home! We hear this appeal every day. Self-isolation remains perhaps the most effective way to slow the spread of the coronavirus epidemic. In doing so, adults continue to work remotely, children learn remotely, and both spend their free time watching their favorite movies, following the course of events via news websites and communicating via social networks. In the modern world, knowledge and entertainment has become available to anyone who has got a telephone or a computer connected to the Internet. It reminds of the joke where it says that Wikipedia knows everything, Google will find everything, Facebook knows everyone, but all of them are nothing without electricity.

Today, we take electricity for granted. But those who are over 30 know what it is like to have just a few hours of light, not being able to use home appliances whenever you want.  And to make our stay under quarantine more comfortable, thousands of employees of the power industry are working in a continuous mode. Under the state of emergency and the ongoing quarantine, the power energy enterprises cannot afford a respite and must strengthen preventive measures to prevent the spread of the virus among their employees.
We now get about a third of the country’s power energy from the Armenian nuclear power plant. How does the NPP work now to ensure that the country has enough power at this difficult time?

From the very beginning of declaring quarantine at the Armenian NPP, Operational Response Headquarters was established and a plan of measures was adopted to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Special attention is paid by headquarters to the entrance checkpoint and working premises. In particular, the floor of the entrance checkpoint is marked to ensure a  social distance. The entire staff of the plant received memos about the prevention of COVID-19 infection.
The activities start prior to arriving at the plant – the minibus that takes the employees to work was replaced by a larger bus, in which the passengers can observe social distancing. On arriving at the plant temperature of each employee is taken, and if it is over 37 degrees, then he is prevented from entering to the plant area. During the shift all the employees’ temperature is taken for a second time.
Artak Navasardyan, the ANPP Shift Supervisor: «For the period of quarantine, for all the people who are not members of the plant staff, it is prohibited to enter the NPP, business trips have been cancelled, a 12-hour schedule for the operating shift personnel has been established, and all the meetings are held via internal communication without any personal contact. The ANPP employees have been provided with the necessary means of individual protection- medical masks, gloves, sanitizers. The rooms and vehicles during the day are being disinfected as well, some of them- even twice a day. All the objects that we touch   - phones, tables, door handles etc., are cleansed with a disinfectant. Also to minimize the risk of the virus spread in a large staff and to ensure maximum isolation of the operating staff, additional measures have been introduced: access to the Main Control Room for the so called “day personnel”, be it the Director General, Chief Engineer or a Department Head, has been restricted».
Susanna Avetisyan, Head of the ANPP Administrative Department: «Already in March a decision was made that the employees who are able to perform their duties from home are transferred to remote operating mode. Owing to the sanitary measures taken at the Armenian NPP, no cases of COVID-19 virus infection have been reported. The plant is operating safely and continues generating power energy to the extent foreseen».
Armine Melikyan, the ANPP operator technician: «Currently I am working from home, observing all the rules of confinement.  All of us want to return to the habitual pace of life, but at the moment it is very important to be accountable for the situation, follow all the necessary rules and in doing so, to properly perform one’s work».

The ANPP employees: «Stay home, work on-line, study remotely, electricity will be provided by us».