Minister confirms that Russia will provide Armenia with $300 million

Minister confirms that Russia will provide Armenia with $300 millionto
extend service life of NPP

YEREVAN, November 12. / ARKA /. Armenian energy and natural resources
minister Yervand Zakharyan has confirmed today that Russia has pledged
to provide $300 million assistance to Armenia, which the government
will use to extend the service life of the Metsamor nuclear power
plant until 2026. The minister said a relating agreement is to be
signed later this year. He said $270 million of that amount will come
as a loan and the rest as a grant. Armenia’s Mestamor nuclear power
plant, located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was built in the
1970s, but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988. One
of its two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995.
Armenian authorities want to replace the aging facility by a new plant
that is supposed to operate at twice the capacity of the
Soviet-constructed facility, generating currently some 40 percent of
Armenia’s electricity. But the government has yet to attract funding
for the project that was estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study
to cost at as much as $5 billion. –0—-