Thursday, June 1 2023 12:24

ArmInfo. Armenia's government has approved a draft presidential decree approving the Armenia-US  Arrangement for the Exchange of Technical Information and Cooperation in Nuclear Safety Matters. 

The Nuclear Safety Regulatory Commission of Armenia has been  cooperating with the U.S. since 1995.  The Armenia-US Arrangement for  the Exchange of Technical Information and Cooperation in Nuclear  Safety Matters was signed on September 30, 1997, resumed in 2007 and  in 2017. 

Under the arrangement, the USNRC performed or sponsored research in  such areas as: Digital Instrumentation and Control; Reactor and  Electrical Equipment Qualification; Environmental Transport;  Radionuclide Transport and Waste Management; Dry Cask Storage and  Transport; Fire Safety Research; Nuclear Fuel Analysis; Severe  Accident Analysis; Operating Experience and Generic Issues; Human  Factors Engineering; Organizational Factors/Safety Culture; Human  Reliability Analysis (HRA); Probabilistic Risk Assessments; Radiation  Protection and Health Effects; Seismic Safety; State of the Art Risk  Consequences; Reactor Containment Structural Safety; Reactor Vessel  and Piping Integrity; Regulatory Guide Update; New and Advanced  Reactor Designs; Decommissioning; Thermal Hydraulic Code Applications  and Maintenance; Uncertainty Analysis for Thermal Hydraulic Kinetics;  Coupled 3D Neutronic and Plant Thermal Hydraulics; Medical Isotope  Production; Long-term Operational Management; Plant and Systems  Operations. 

The Committee on Nuclear Safety Regulation of the Republic of Armenia  and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission signed an  expanded Cooperative Arrangement on the exchange of technical  information and cooperation on nuclear safety matters in Washington,  USA, on March 14, 2023.

Maria Longi, Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe, Eurasia, and  Central Asia, stated that in a number of countries, including  Armenia, the U.S. was assessing the feasibility of small modular  nuclear reactors built with US technology that could facilitate  greater energy independence from both Russia and China.

Armenia's Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated that small modular nuclear  reactors with a capacity of 70 MW enable the existing capacities to  be gradually built up. 

"The other proposals are somewhat problematic for us as construction  of a 1,000 MW reactors is implied.  Our experts say such an energy  consumption system would be problematic," he said.