RosBusinessConsulting, Russia
July 9 2004
EU wants Armenia to close its nuclear power plant
RBC, 09.07.2004, Yerevan 09:43:33.The European Union is
planning to collect funds to close the Armenian nuclear power plant,
Janez Potocnik, a junior EU commissioner working with enlargement
commissioner Guenter Verheugen, declared at a briefing in Yerevan,
Armenia. According to him, the EU is ready to allocate up to EUR100m
for this purpose and attract its partners to this project, the ARKA
news agency reported.
The closing of the nuclear facility is necessary for
technological and seismic safety reasons, the commissioner specified
noting that Bulgaria and Baltic states also faced such problems.
At the same time, Potocnik admitted that this was a pretty
complicated process, since new sources of energy were to be found.
According to Armenian experts, some EUR1bn is necessary to create
other energy generating facilities that would replace the capacity of
the Armenian nuclear power plant.
The facility was put into operation in January 1980. Due to
some political circumstances it was closed in 1989. A second rector
of the plant resumed generating energy in 1995. The capacity of each
reactor is 407.5 megawatts. Experts believe that the power plant can
operate until 2018.
Financial flows of the Armenian nuclear power plant are managed
by Inter RAO UES, which is a subsidiary of RAO UES (60 percent) and
Rosenergoatom (40 percent).