Wednesday, November 12 2014

 French entrepreneurs are ready to study any proposal by the Armenian party related to construction of a nuclear power plant.  The remarks came from newly appointed French Ambassador to Armenia Jean-Francois Charpentier in a press conference in Yerevan in response to the question as to whether France will take part in construction of a new NPP. 

"French businessmen are familiar with the field. We are ready to cooperate if Armenia makes relevant proposals. We have received no such proposals yet," the Ambassador said.  

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia Ara Simonyan said Russian Federation would direct US$300 million in the project to extend the service life of the second power unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant.  He said US$270 million out of this sum would be provided in terms of a loan and the remaining US$30 million would be grants. The relevant contract will be signed between Armenia and Russia till the end of 2014 and will be submitted to ratification by the parliaments of the two countries. Afterwards, implementation of the project will start, in which "Rosatom" will take part. Under the contract, the service life of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP will be extended till 2026. 

The Armenian NPP, the only NPP in the region, is located near the town of Metsamor (some 30km to the south of Yerevan). The first unit was put into exploitation in 1976, the second in 1980. At the beginning of 1989, the plant was closed down for political ideas, and then the second unit was reactivated because of acute energy crisis at the beginning of 1995. Two power units of Russian model pressurized water reactor- 440, with capacity of 815 megawatt in total were installed at the Armenian NPP. Experts say the Plant will be able to operate till 2016. The Armenian NPP was under financial management of the Inter RJSC UES of Russia till Mar 2012. The Armenian authorities mull construction of the new power unit with a capacity of 1,000 MW in the area of the NPP. The project costs $5 bln.