(Read the full article on armenpress.am)

A key stage of scheduled preventive maintenance (PPR-2021) has started at the Armenian NPP – work has begun on the recovery annealing of the NPP reactor vessel, ARMENPRESS reported.

Annealing will return the operational characteristics of the metal shell of the reactor to its original state by 80-85%. The implementation of this procedure will make it possible to operate the Armenian NPP until 2036.

As the press service of the Rosatom state corporation told Armenpress , preparations for the annealing took almost a year and a half. The annealing equipment has now been installed in the RPV, final checks have been completed and heating has begun. The reactor vessel of the Armenian NPP will be heated to 475 degrees Celsius using an annealing unit, held for 150 hours and allowed to cool slowly. Direct heat treatment of the reactor vessel metal will be carried out for a week.

The organization of work under the modernization contract is carried out by JSC Rusatom Service, which is part of the electric power division of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

 Now at the NPP, the control of the annealing unit, control of all technological parameters and the annealing mode of the reactor vessel are carried out by specialists from Russian companies and organizations, including JSC OKB GIDROPRESS, JSC NPO TsNIITMASH, JSC Atomenergoremont, NRC Kurchatov Institute, TsNIIKM “Prometheus”. In turn, it was the specialists of NPO TsNIITMASH JSC who developed the reactor vessel annealing technology, which is being carried out today at all stations where the service life is being extended.