Experts fear Armenian Chernobyl

The Times/UK
November 16, 2004

Jeremy Page reports from Yerevan

Local people and the European Union are at odds over a Soviet-era reactor

THE Metsamor atomic plant looms menacingly behind Eduard Kenyasyan as
he offers a slice of homegrown water melon on the end of his
knife. `Nuclear melon?’ he asks with a mischievous grin. After living
next to this Chernobyl-era power plant on a seismic fault in southern
Armenia for 30 years, he is usedto the threat of nuclear disaster.

`If anything happens, it will affect the whole country, not just me,’
he says, shrugging.

The rest of Europe has not taken such a relaxed approach. The European
Union has lobbied hard for the plant, just ten miles from the border
with Turkey,to close this year. It says that the pressurised
water-reactor, based on first generation Soviet technology, may not
withstand another serious earthquake. Alexis Louber, the EU’s
representative in Armenia, caused an uproarrecently when he said that
keeping the plant open was the same as `flying around a potential
nuclear bomb’.

Metsamor was built in the 1970s and shut down after a big earthquake
in 1988, which killed at least 25,000 people in northern Armenia and
hit 5.0 on the Richter scale around Metsamor. Yet the Armenian
Government reopened the plant’s second unit in 1995 because of severe
power shortages and now says that it can continue working until 2016 –
and possibly 2031.

The resulting dispute pits growing Western concerns over obsolete
Soviet nuclear facilities against Armenia’s determination to preserve
its independence and energy security. The EU has campaigned for the
closure of dozens of atomic plants in the former Soviet Union since
Chernobyl, and its concerns have intensified since expanding to
Russia’s borders.

Although Metsamor uses different – and safer – technology from that at
Chernobyl, it lacks secondary containment facilities to prevent
radioactiveleakage in the event of an accident, European experts say.

In addition, nuclear fuel has to be flown to Yerevan from Russia and
then driven along a bumpy road to Metsamor once a year, because
Armenia’s border with Turkey is closed.

Jacques Vantomme, the EU’s acting Ambassador to Georgia and Armenia,
said: ` If there is an earthquake tomorrow, would it create a nuclear
disaster? I don’ t know – it depends on the size of the earthquake.

`The EU’s policy is that we want the closure of the plant at the
earliest possible date. This type of nuclear plant is not built to EU
standards and upgrading it cannot be done at a reasonable cost.’

The EU has offered â=82¬100 million (£70 million) in financial aidto
shut the plant and develop alternative energy sources, but Vartan
Oksanyan, the Armenian Foreign Minister, described that as
`peanuts’. Metsamor notonly provides 40 per cent of Armenia’s energy,
it also sells excess power to neighbouring Georgia. Decommissioning
the plant alone could cost more than £270 million, according to local
experts. With no oil and gas, and scant wind and water resources,
Armenia has few alternative energy sources.

The mostly Christian nation is also reluctant to rely on imported
energy because of its history of hostility with its Islamic
neighbours.

`Armenia knows this plant has to go,’ Mr Oksanyan said, â=80=9Cbut
let’s make sure we have the capacity to replace it before we close it
down.’

Power shortages between 1989 and 1995 have left deep scars on the
country. Almost all Armenians can recall sleeping in multiple layers
of clothing or waking to use their one hour of power each day.

Armenia’s forests were devastated by people cutting wood for
fuel. Gagik Markosyan, the head of the Metsamor plant, said: `I saw
the energy crisis myself. We can’t talk about closing the plant down
overnight.’

He said that more than £27 million had been spent on improving safety
since the plant reopened. British experts have been training staff
there for the past three years.

The second unit, opened in 1980, was originally designed to work until
2010, but as it was shut for six years, it could now work until
2016. Tests by Russian experts on similar reactors show that Metsamor
could, in theory, operate until 2031.

`As an engineer, I would not exclude that,’ Mr Markosyan said. For
him, as for most Armenians, a new nuclear plant is the only viable
alternative. TheEU is reluctant to foot the bill, however, arguing
that Armenia, without the Soviet Union, would never have borne the
hidden costs of development and decommissioning.

`We need the plant,’ Mr Kenyasyan says. `Like it or not, we can’t live
without it.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress