EU ready to grant 100 mln euros to close Armenian nuclear plant
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 3, 2004 Thursday

YEREVAN, June 3 — The European Union has reiterated its readiness
to allocate 100 million euros to close the Armenian nuclear power
plant 40 kilometers west of the Armenian capital Yerevan, the press
secretary of the Yerevan office of the European Commission’s delegation
in Georgia and Armenia, Anait Azatyan, told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

The funds will be allotted after the talks on terms of the plant’s
shutdown are completed.

The Armenian nuclear plant was launched in 1979 and shut down in 1989
after a devastating earthquake. In 1996, Russia helped Armenia repair
the second reactor and put the plant on line.

This plant generates 40 percent of all electricity in Armenia. In the
meantime, the EU is pressing for its closing. The Armenian authorities
declared in response the plant’s shutdown would be possible if the
EU proposed alternative electric power sources. One of the options is
to lay a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia. The pipeline construction
is expected to begin this year and be completed in 2006.