On September 8 at 11:48 the turbine generator N3 of the Armenian NPP Unit 2, after annual outage (2019 outage), was brought to power level and connected to national grid of Armenia.

Currently the ANPP is running according to the dispatcher schedule.

The radiation background at the plant and its vicinity is at the level which corresponds to the Units normal operation and does not exceed natural background values.

With bringing the reactor to operational parameters and connection of turbine generator N3 (with 236MW run) to the power grid the 2019 outage is considered to be completed.

As is known, the fourth year now the ANPP combines the preventive maintenance of standard outages with implementation of the ANPP Life Extension Program, as far as the most of the works in that area is technologically accessible only on the shutdown unit.

A huge scope of activities has been implemented.

The following has been implemented:

• Complete discharge of nuclear fuel from reactor, wash-up and preparation to testing,
• Instrumental survey of reactor vessel and preliminary analysis of results,
• Completion of instrumental survey of the first and second safety category components with preliminary conclusion,
• Recovery maintenance of four trains of the reactor control and protection system (CPS) on the reactor upper unit,
• Modernization (replacement of electric equipment) of the reactor CPS,
• Modernization of sprinkler system ensuring integrity of reactor building in emergencies,
• Completion of thermal insulation of primary circuit pipelines and components which transform the nuclear fuel thermal power to “main steam” energy directed to turbines,
• Replacement of individual pumps, valves, pipeline components referring to second and third safety category systems,
• Replacement of uninterruptible power supply system accumulator batteries.

The results of these activities will sufficiently improve safety and reliability of the Unit operation.

Not less extensive work has been implemented and is planned for power generation systems (in turbine hall).

The activities on modernization of turbine N3 are completed. They were started last year (2018 outage), in particular:

• Replacement of turbine condensers,
• Replacement of three condensate pumps,
• Replacement of individual pumps, valves, pipeline components referring to third and fourth safety category systems (auxiliary systems of turbine-generator set N3).

The activities are under implementation on the second set of turbine-generator-transformer equipment, in particular, replacement of high pressure cylinder, two low pressure cylinders, three pumps of turbine N4 and components of auxiliary systems.

These activities will complete modernization of turbine hall equipment. It is expected that they will result in notable increase of the Unit output power (about 10%) due to efficiency factor.

It should be mentioned that successful completion of these extensive plans came to be possible only thanks to well-managed process and commitment of the Armenian NPP personnel to the final result, and also, in no small part, thanks to common ground, healthy and business interrelations with involved Russian organizations which were established over a period of several years collaborative effort. In various periods of the completed outage from 200 to 600 specialists from these organizations have been working at the plant. All of them demonstrate operational excellence and, what is particularly essential, understanding of specific features of the situation established at the ANPP and willingness to resolve the occurring problems.