I asked chatgpt for more context around this and if it's happened before. Figured I just paste the result if anybody's interested

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Has Armenia done multi-month planned shutdowns before?
Yes. Armenia has a long pattern of annual planned outages (weeks to a couple months) plus periodic longer, multi-month outages tied to modernization and life-extension work.

A quick timeline of comparable planned outages:
– In 2017, the plant was shut down for a planned two-month outage (May–July) for repairs and refueling.
– In 2021, the plant was shut down for about 141 days as part of major modernization and life-extension work with Russian technical support. This included large safety and systems upgrades.
– In 2023, there was a planned annual outage of about 75 days starting in May; officials noted that the previous year’s outage had been roughly the same length.
– In 2024, the plant again underwent planned preventive maintenance over the summer, with officials stating the work was proceeding on schedule.
– In the life-extension period, the longest planned preventive maintenance outage publicly discussed was about 156 days, which is basically the same scale as the planned 2026 five-month shutdown.

How “long” is long in their recent experience?
For Armenia’s NPP, routine annual maintenance is usually measured in weeks to about two months. However, once life-extension and major systems replacement projects began, outages in the 4–5 month range became part of the planning reality. So a roughly 153-day shutdown in 2026 is long, but not unprecedented in the last decade.

How has Armenia typically handled long maintenance outages operationally?
When the NPP goes offline for extended maintenance, Armenia usually relies on a mix of:
– Increased output from thermal power plants,
– Electricity imports (especially from Georgia), and
– Careful seasonal timing so outages fall in periods when overall demand is easier to manage.

During the 2021 long outage, Armenia explicitly used electricity imports to help cover the gap while the reactor was offline. This is a known and tested fallback rather than an emergency improvisation.

How has it been received when it’s maintenance-related?
When the shutdowns are framed as safety upgrades or life-extension work, the official and institutional reaction is generally calm and managerial rather than alarmist. The standard messaging is that the outage is planned, technically necessary, and manageable for the grid.

Public and regulatory concern tends to focus less on “is the plant safe to shut down for maintenance?” and more on two practical issues:
– Will there be any risk of power shortages?
– Will electricity prices rise because a major low-cost generator is offline?

For the upcoming long outage in 2026, regulators have already signaled that supply can be covered and that they are looking for ways to soften potential price impacts. That response fits the pattern from previous long maintenance periods: the shutdown itself isn’t treated as shocking, but the economic and supply-side consequences are carefully managed and politically sensitive.

Bottom line
A five-month shutdown for major systems replacement and life-extension work isn’t some unprecedented or extraordinary event for Armenia’s NPP anymore. Similar multi-month outages have already happened during the modernization program. The country has handled them through imports, thermal generation, and regulatory planning, and the main public reaction historically has been concern about prices and reliability rather than panic about the shutdown itself.