By Robert Kalantari
President & Chief Executive Officer
Engineering Planning and Management (EPM), Inc.
September 15, 2020
Reading the article by Garbis Korajian about Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in the September 8 issue inspired me to provide my views on this issue. Mr. Korajian’s assessment of the situation was right on, he did a great job analyzing the recent situation and providing his views and recommendations on how to deal with the political side and how to protect the plant from the lunatics who threatened to blow it up. He also provided his recommendations on how to address future electricity generation without Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant. I would like to build on what Garbis said and offer another option for electricity generation when Metsamor is closed.
Metzamor is a Soviet design (VVER 440-V230 type) reactor. The plant produces approximately 375 MW, about 35% of the county’s electricity needs. Like many other western plants, Metsamor has gone through life extension upgrades and is good to run until 2026. If it is not replaced with another nuclear plant, Armenia can extend the life of Metsamor beyond 2026.
Having reliable, clean electricity generation capability is vital to Armenia’s national security, vital to the country’s economic growth and essential to basic needs of everyday life in Armenia. Clean electricity generation can be generated from many sources, like wind, hydro, solar, nuclear power, and geothermal plants. While all these methods can generate clean power, wind and solar have limitations. When there is no wind or no sun, you cannot generate electricity. Yes, you can build a system to store the power in batteries and use it later, but then they must be recharged after only a few hours of use. It becomes complicated and not practical, as such, we cannot rely on these systems as the only options for the bulk of electricity generation in any country. Other uninterrupted and continuous generation methods must be included in the electricity generation mix, and for Armenia, my recommendation is to replace Metsamor with a modern, Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
With the advances the industry has made in the 3rd and 4th generation reactor technology, building Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) is one that Armenia should seriously consider. Such reactors have power generation capability from 25 to 300 MW, and their designs have inherent, mainly passive safety features. The main components of these reactors can be factory-built, manufactured off site with increased quality, and shipped to site for assembly, hence, substantially reducing the construction time as well as the cost. Another advantage of SMR is that these units can run without refueling for a much longer duration, 5 years in some designs and can be built underground, eliminating the impact of any natural or manmade hazards to these plants.
It should be noted that many developing countries in Africa and some in the Middle East are seriously considering building nuclear power plants, and especially SMR plants. Building and operating nuclear plants requires technology knowledge and regulatory infrastructure in place that takes several years to establish before such plants can be build. Armenia has the advantage of operating nuclear power plants for over 40 years and has an experienced regulatory body in place to oversee the construction and operation of any new plants today, a major hurdle for many countries seeking nuclear power. In fact, my suggestion for Armenia would be to build new nuclear power plant(s) with excess capacity, to have the capability to export the excess power to friendly neighboring countries, mainly Iran and Georgia.
There are many SMR designs in various sizes, including the Russian Federation, the U.S., France, Republic of Korea, and China. The decision as to what type of SMR Armenia should be built involves many factors, such as fuel supply, financing, etc., and must be decided by the Armenian government. However, the decision must be made very quickly to be able to start the construction and to finish the project in a timely manner to support the eventual retirement of Metsamor.
About the Author
Robert Kalantari is President and CEO of EPM, an engineering and consulting company involved in addressing nuclear safety issues throughout the world. He has BS in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University in Boston and has over forty years of engineering, design, regulatory and management experience in the nuclear power industry.
He has assisted many U.S. utilities and have provided his expertise to Canadian, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Japanese, and South Korean utilities, and regulators in the implementation of many specialty safety programs. He also participated in missions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for safety inspections of Metsamor in 2003.
Appointed by the U.S. secretary of Commerce under the previous and current administration, he has served on CINTAC (Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee) since 2014.
He has also been serving on the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) Chemical/Nuclear Engineering Department advisory board since 2015.