ARMENIA CHOOSES FRANCE’S AREVA TO BUILD NEW NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITY

Turkish Press
Oct 3 2005

YEREVAN – The Armenian government has chosen a subsidiary of France’s
energy group Areva to build a new 10-million-euro (12-million-dollar)
nuclear waste facility for the country’s controversial Metsamor
reactor, the Armenian energy ministry said on Monday.

Cogema Logistics, a unit of Areva, will build a second waste disposal
facility in three phases between 2007-2018, said a spokesperson at
the ministry, Lucin Arutyunian.

The European Union has asked Armenia to close the Metsamor reactor
because of safety concerns, but the power station, built in 1977,
accounts for about 40 percent of electricity production in the country.