Armenia Holds Nuclear Talks With US as Rosatom Offers Unit

Armenia discussed plans for a new nuclear power unit with a US State Department delegation on 23 October and named an acting head for the state company preparing the project, as Yerevan weighs competing offers that include a Rosatom proposal for a unit of roughly 1,000 MW. The meeting in Yerevan was led on the Armenian side by Narek Apitonyan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the ministry told NEWS.am.

The US delegation was led by the State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Security Assistance Programs. The two sides reviewed progress on Armenian and US energy cooperation projects and prospects for widening them, and discussed construction of the new unit. Apitonyan said Garik Nalbandyan had been appointed Acting General Director of the New Nuclear Power Unit Construction CJSC, the state company advancing the project, and said he hoped the appointment would give the project new momentum, including work with relevant US companies.

Later the same day, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Davit Khudatyan declined to describe the US proposal. "We are discussing various proposals with various countries," he said, according to NEWS.am. "The Republic of Armenia is interested in both small power units and traditional large power units." He did not rule out a plant larger than the existing one and said a decision would be announced once it was final.

An ageing plant and a deadline

Armenia runs one reactor, a 376 MWe VVER unit at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant at Metsamor that began operating in 1980, according to World Nuclear News. The plant's two units were shut in 1988 over seismic safety concerns, and unit 2 was restarted in 1995. Rosatom is working with Armenia on extending its life to 2036.

The Armenian side is also studying a further extension from 2036 to 2046. Rosatom's head described that as technically feasible but said it would need significant investment, possibly hundreds of millions of dollars, for safety and automation upgrades, re-annealing of the reactor vessel and spent fuel storage, World Nuclear News reported on 30 September. The plant has less than a decade left in its current operating period, MassisPost noted.

Russian and US offers

During a visit to Yerevan in late September, Rosatom presented a proposal for a new unit based on its VVER-1000 design, a water-cooled reactor with roughly 1,000 MW of electrical capacity, MassisPost reported. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, according to World Nuclear News, that the government was weighing proposals received from international partners, that a decision would be made in the near future, and that it would be of an "exclusively economic nature".

The US track rests on an agreement reached in February. Pashinyan and US Vice President JD Vance signed a joint statement completing negotiations on an agreement on peaceful nuclear energy cooperation, known as the 123 Agreement, according to the Armenian prime minister's office. Vance said the deal would allow up to $5 billion in initial US exports, plus $4 billion in long-term support through fuel and maintenance contracts, and that "small modular reactors, American technologies will be coming to this country".

Pashinyan's more recent remarks suggest Armenia may now lean towards a large reactor over the small modular reactors it considered earlier, MassisPost wrote. Khudatyan's comments on 23 October left both options open.

What it means for business

The choice of reactor will shape Armenia's power market for decades and decide which suppliers, lenders and contractors take part in the project. A large Russian-designed unit would keep Armenia tied to Rosatom for fuel and services, while a US-led project would draw on the export and fuel support Vance described.

The decision also sits beside other moves in Armenia's energy system. The government has moved to take full ownership of the Electric Networks of Armenia, CBJ reported, and plans to buy gas from four suppliers, as CBJ has covered. The appointment of a new acting head at the project company is the first concrete step since the Rosatom offer, and the next signal will be which proposal the government puts forward for detailed study.