Russia and Armenia have signed an intergovernmental agreement, under the terms of which the two countries will cooperate in extending the operating life of the second unit of Metsamor, Armenia's sole nuclear power plant. The operating license of the VVER-440 unit runs until September 2016. The license will now be renewed for a further 10 years, until September 2026 (application expected in September 2016). Russia will provide a US$300m loan to upgrade the unit between 2017 and 2019.
The plant, which consisted of two 407 MW units (376 MW net) commissioned between 1976 and 1980, had to suspend operations in 1989, after the 1988 massive earthquake. The first unit is now being decommissioned, while the second unit was restarted in 1995 due to the severe economic crisis. A new reactor is under consideration: in 2009, Atomstroyexport and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources created a project company, Metzamorenergoatom, to build a 1,060 MW AES-92 reactor. The construction was approved in May 2014 and could start in 2018, to generate power as of 2026.
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