The Russian-Armenian project on extension of the service life of the only nuclear power plant (NPP) in the republic can be optimized, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan told TASS.

"We agreed we will work for higher efficiency of our cooperation in gas and nuclear energy sphere," the prime minister said. "You know we have a joint project for extension of the service life of NPP. This project is implemented now but there is an opportunity to make implementation more efficient," Pashinyan noted. The two countries will continue cooperating in this sphere to have "more efficient management of our nuclear power plant," he said.

"We also agree we will discuss this topic in other formats shortly," he added.

The Armenian NPP was put into service in 1979 and shut down in 1989 after the devastating Spitak earthquake of 1988. It was de-mothballed in 1995, followed by commercial operation of the second power unit of NPP.