Closure of nuclear plant to stimulate Armenia’s energy sector

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
19 Mar 04

Excerpt from unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan
Zhamanak on 19 March headlined “”A draft law on the closure of the
Armenian Nuclear Power Station”

The government yesterday approved a draft law “On saving energy and
restoring the energy sector” that will be submitted to the National
Assembly for ratification. In fact, this law may also be called a bill
“On the closure of the Armenian Nuclear Power Station”. During
yesterday’s news conference on the submission of the draft law, Deputy
Energy Minister Areg Galstyan said that it is planned to raise the
level of Armenia’s energy system through the ratification of this
draft law.

According to Galstyan, in order to solve this problem, it is necessary
to stimulate the development of domestic energy resources, i.e. the
development of energy production in hydroelectric and wind power
plants. According to the deputy energy minister, this new law
specifies the government’s steps in this sector. It is to increase
energy produced with the help of domestic energy resources.

During the news conference, Galstyan listed several figures. Last year
Armenian consumed about 5.5bn kW/h of electricity, and 2bn kW/h of
this amount were produced by hydroelectric power plants.

Passage omitted: Other figures