15 Aug (NucNet): Work has begun to finalise tenders and contracts for the planned life extension of the Armenian-2 nuclear reactor unit near Metsamor in the west of Armenia, Armenia’s Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources said on 14 August 2017. The ministry said 16 agreements on the provision of services for the life extension have been submitted for approval to Armenia’s and Russia’s ministries of finance. In December 2016, the first phase of a feasibility study was completed for the planned life extension. Armenia said earlier in 2016 that it was going ahead with plans to extend commercial operation of the Russian-supplied VVER unit until 2027. In May 2015 the Armenian parliament approved the signing of a contract with Russia related to the life extension. Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom confirmed that the contract had been signed in June 2015 and that it was worth $300m (€256m). Rosatom said financing will come from “loan funds” of $270m and a $30m grant provided under an agreement signed between Armenia and Russia. The Armenian station’s two units were commissioned in 1977 and 1980, but both were shut down in March 1989, when Armenia was still part of the Soviet Union, following an earthquake that killed 25,000 people. Unit 2 was returned to commercial operation in November 1995 due to an acute energy crisis in Armenia, but it was decided that Unit 1 would be decommissioned. Plans for two more units at the site were abandoned after the 1986 Chernobyl accident. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Armenian-2 supplied 31.4% of the total electricity produced in Armenia in 2016 with 2.2 TWh net.
