New Chernobyl? Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract

Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (Armenian Nuclear Power Plant-ANPP) in Metsamor, Armenia, is 30 km away from Igdir, located at the east of Turkey, and is a facility that meets the majority of Armenia's energy needs. The Armenian NPP consists of two power units with WWER-440/270 reactors. The Unit 1 was put into operation on December 22, 1976 and the Unit 2 was put into operation on January 5, 1980. The installed power of the units is 407,5 MW(e). In 1989 the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Ministers Council made a decision on the shutdown of the Armenian NPP. The Unit 1 and the Unit 2 were shut down on February 25, 1989 and March 18, 1989, correspondingly. After the collapse of the USSR the following events resulted in severe energy crisis in Armenia. On April 7, 1993 the Government of Armenia made a decision on restart of the Unit 2. On November 5, 1995 the ANPP Unit 2 was restarted, after 6,5 years of shutdown. With restart of the Armenian NPP after severe energy crisis Armenia moved on to day-and-night power supply schedule. In this study it has given information about the history and operation of Armenian NPP and demonstrated the factors that led to shotdown of the plant for a period and the arised risks resulting from reopening it. In addition, it has presented recommendations about foundation and safe operation of nuclear power plants by the basis of Metsamor reference