AFX News
January 29, 2007 Monday 2:28 PM GMT
LENGTH: 243 words

Moscow and Yerevan to explore uranium deposits in Armenia

YEREVAN (AFX) – Moscow and Yerevan want to explore uranium deposits
in Armenia which could supply the Armenian nuclear power station in
Metsamor, the Armenian presidency announced.

‘Uranium deposits were first prospected in Armenia in the Soviet era.
There are documents which confirm their existence in the Rosatom (the
Russian federal agency for atomic energy) archives’, spokesman to the
Armenian president Viktor Sogomonian told the press.

Specialists from a Russian-Armenian commission (to be created for
this project) will evaluate the reserves of these deposits and
determine whether they would be worth mining, the spokesman said.

‘The uranium will not be enriched and will be produced exclusively
for the Armenian nuclear industry’, Sogomonian said.

Armenia’s only nuclear power station is in Metsamor, 30km west of
Yerevan. It produces 40 pct of the country’s electricity. Since 2005,
it has been managed by Inter SEU, a subsidiary of the Russian
electricity giant SEU.

According to the Armenian energy minister, 70 pct of electricity
produced in Armenia depends on deliveries of Russian gas and nuclear
fuel.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress