ARMENIA TO DECOMMISSION ITS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN NEAR FUTURE – AGENCY

Arminfo
31 May 07

Yerevan, 31 May: Nine projects for a total amount of 7m dollars have
been implemented in the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) in the
past year, ANPP general director Gagik Martirosyan has told Arminfo.

He said that several projects aimed at increasing the plant’s security
will be implemented this year too. He could not give the overall amount
of the investments to be made in the plant in 2007 as the process
of the projects preparation and talks is still unfinished. He said
that over 55m dollars have been spent in total to increase the plant’s
security and that today, the ANPP meets all the international security
norms but the work in that direction will continue. "The security
issue will be a key one until the last day of the plant," he said.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said at yesterday’s [30 May]
meeting of the Nuclear Power Security Council under the president that
in the coming two months, the Ministry of Energy will submit to the
government a programme of decommissioning the ANPP. This document, the
president said, has been worked out in the framework of the technical
assistance extended by the European Union. Under the Actions Plan of
the New Neighbourhood Policy, Armenia has committed to shut down the
existing NPP as soon as possible.

[Passage omitted on background details]