At today's sitting the government made a decision on the renovation of the Armenian nuclear power plant and the annulment of the loan agreement signed with the Russian "Rosatom" company.
"In the framework of the "Extension of the term of operation of the 2nd power unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant" program $ 270 million loan and $ 30 million grant agreements were signed between the RA and Russian governments in 2014-2015.
In December 2018 negotiations have begun to extend the loan. First of all we have a problem with extending the term, because it was not possible to spend the existing loan amount. The balance is currently $ 107 million. However in order to complete the work we consider it expedient to provide loans at the expense of Armenia's own funds", said Suren Papikyan, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure.
According to him it is planned for 2020-2022 to provide a budget loan of 62.3 billion AMD from the budget. "An interdepartmental tender commission will be set up for this purpose. This is very important for the timely completion of the renovation of the second power unit of the Armenian NPP”, the minister assured.
The RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded that the loan that exists so far is not so convenient for organizing the further activities of the nuclear power plant in terms of size and conditions. "We refuse a part of that loan and instead attract funds from internal sources which will undoubtedly attract with much better conditions and increase the efficiency of the loan", Pashinyan said.
According to the Prime Minister for many years the NPP has been an object from which more has been taken than given. "We have a specific task to increase the efficiency of the nuclear power plant which is not only a matter of management but also of energy security.
