Armenia is looking into options for construction of new NPP with 1000 MW capacity- Director General
SOCHI /ARKA/ Armenia is studying several options of building a new nuclear reactor with a capacity of up to 1,000 MW, Director General of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant Eduard Martirosyan said.
“Whether it will be a stationary NPP or a modular power unit – this choice has not been made yet,” Martirosyan told Armenian journalists on the sidelines of the Atomexpo-2024 international forum, which is being held by Rosatom Corporation on March 25-26 in Sochi.
He said an inter-agency working group has been set up, which includes representatives of all interested departments – Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, related industries, that can give an assessment on further tasks.
According to him, the Armenian side aspires to have a modern, safe and price-competitive nuclear power plant in the future.
“This is a large-scale project, which requires serious research both in terms of power capacity, safety requirements, and terrain. Work is underway, at the moment documentation has been received from various organizations, some work has been done, including with the state corporation Rosatom. Work will be carried out with all countries that have experience in the construction of nuclear power plants – China, the U.S., France, South Korea,” Martirosyan emphasized.
When asked about the timeframe needed to select a suitable project, build and launch a new NPP, Martirosyan indicated that usually it takes from 8 to 12 years, depending on the project.
He also said that Armenia is not going to export spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from the Metsamor nuclear power plant outside the country at the moment.
In November 2023, Movses Vardanyan, Deputy General Director of the Armenian NPP, announced plans to build Armenia’s own complex for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) reprocessing.
In Soviet times, the spent fuel from the Metsamor NPP was exported from Armenia to Russia via Azerbaijan by railway.
The Armenian nuclear power plant, the only one in the South Caucasus region, is located near the town of Metsamor, about 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. It accounts for about 40% of the country’s electricity generation.
The government has already extended the facility’s lifespan by ten years until 2026 after a major modernization and technical upgrade.
Armenian authorities want to build a new nuclear power plant with a capacity of about 1000-1200 MW. Several options are being considered – either construction of a power unit with a capacity of about 1000 or 1200 MW, or two units of 1000 MW each.
Tentatively, the new NPP will be built on the territory adjacent to the existing NPP (about 80 hectares) and will allow using part of the existing infrastructure.
