ARMENIA NOT TO ENRICH URANIUM – PRESIDENT
Television of Armenia, Yerevan
30 May 07
Armenia has no plans of uranium enrichment, Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan said at the ninth sitting of the Armenian Nuclear Power
Security Council on 30 May.
Reporting the event on the same day, Public TV showed him saying:
"It is preferable for us to integrate into the idea of creating
international centres that would provide services of nuclear heating
cycle under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency
[IAEA]. An agreement, exactly in this context, has been reached
with Russia."
Arminfo news agency quoted Kocharyan as saying that in the next two
months the Armenian Energy Ministry will submit to the government
the strategy of ceasing the operation of the Armenian Nuclear Power
Plant (NPP). He said that government was still planning to develop
nuclear energy.
"Amendments to the law on energy are manifestation of our intention to
preserve and develop nuclear energy. The law has abolished restrictions
on the involvement of foreign and private capital in the nuclear
energy sector," Kocharyan said.
"The issue of raising the security level of the exploitation of the
operational block of the NPP, including the termination of the plant’s
operation, has been and remains one of the most priority issues for
the government of the country and for the president personally. This
is why we assess highly the initiative of the IAEA on the coordination
of international technical assistance and all the work directed at
the implementation of the programme," Public TV showed Kocharyan
telling the participants in the meeting.
Kocharyan stressed the importance of changes in the energy
field. Arminfo news agency quoted him as saying that currently
Armenia actively continues the construction of the second part of
the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline. He also said that modernization of
nine power substations had been completed.
The president also spoke about the changes in Armenian economy since
the previous sitting in 2005. Public TV quoted Kocharyan as saying
that that economy has grown twice since then. "The republic has
‘closed’ the 2005 and 2006 with doubled figures of economic growth,"
the president said in his remarks shown by the TV.