ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 11, 2005 Monday 3:18 PM Eastern Time

Armenia may build new nuclear power plant

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said on Monday there was a
possibility of Armenia building a new nuclear power plant. “Quite
possibly, a new nuclear power plant based on contemporary
technologies will be built in Armenia,” the president said at a
meeting with students and the teaching staff of the economy
department of Yerevan State University.

Kocharyan said it was hard to imagine a larger damage to the country
than the closure of the nuclear power plant in 1989. The energy
crisis that resulted from that rash step led to a decay of the
republic’s economy, Kocharyan said.

The power plant that went into operation in 1979 was shut down after
the devastative earthquake in 1989. It was re-activated with the
assistance of Russian specialists in 1996, and the industrial
operation of its second power-generating set was resumed.

The plant accounts for nearly 40 percent of electricity generated in
Armenia. From 2002 the plant’s financial and economic management went
to Inter-RAO UES, the subsidiary of RAO UES (Unified Energy Systems).

Meanwhile the European Union presses for the closure of the nuclear
power plant situated 40 kilometres West of Yerevan. The Armenian
authorities say that the plant may be closed only if there are
alternative sources of energy.

The president said on Monday the Armenian authorities consider the
use of alternative, renewable sources of energy, the development of
hydro energetics. There is a programme of building a large hydro
power station on the Araks River on the border and of over 70 small
hydro power stations. Twenty-two of them are already under
construction. Reconstruction of the Yerevan heat-and-power plant
begins. There are projects for using geothermal resources in South
East Armenia.

A gas pipeline to Armenia from Iran whose construction begins in late
April is one of serious guarantees of the republic’s energy security.