YEREVAN

Russian specialists have arrived to Armenia to help the country with its Soviet-built nuclear power plant maintenance project, the plant’s press service said.

The nuclear power plant in Metsamor, 30 kilometres from the capital Yerevan, suspended operations last week for scheduled preventive maintenance that would last for 141 days, the longest shutdown in the plant’s history.

The maintenance is aimed at the plant’s “modernisation and extension of its life.”

“Such a long shutdown is connected with the final important work on the modernisation of the second power unit of the nuclear plant,” the press service said in a statement.

The maintenance will be carried out by specialists from Russia’s Rusatom Service, a subsidiary of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom.

Around 350 specialists from Russia will be involved in repair works over the entire period of the maintenance this year and 120 have already arrived to Armenia.

“After the modernisation, the physical and mechanical properties of the reactor vessel will be restored and it will be possible to operate it after 2026 – until 2036,” the press service said.

Specialists say that the extension will add 10 more years to the life of the plant that is currently due to be decommissioned in 2026.

The 815-megawatt power plant, which generates around 40 percent of the country’s electricity, has two power units, one of which was commissioned in December 1976, the second – in January 1980.

The station was shut down in March 1989 after the devastating earthquake in the Armenian town of Spitak in December 1988, which killed 25,000 people. The second power unit was re-commissioned in November 1995 due to the energy crisis in the country.

Armenian government failed to attract investors to build a new and safer nuclear station in the country and decided to extend the life of the 420-megawatt reactor for another ten years, until 2026.

Russia has provided Yerevan with a $270 million loan and a $30 million grant for major safety upgrades that are due to be completed in 2023.

European experts say that the ageing Metsamor power plant continues to pose a serious challenge to regional security. The decommissioning of Metsamor was included in both the 2006 European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) Action Plan and the 2017 Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA).