ARMENIA TO BUILD NEW REACTOR AT ITS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

ITAR-TASS
Oct 24 2007
Russia

YEREVAN, October 24 (Itar-Tass) — Armenia has made a decision to
build a new unit at the operating nuclear power plant to replace the
one to be decommissioned, Energy Minister Armen Movsesyan said.

"An alternative to the nuclear power plant in Armenia could be
only a new nuclear unit that will meet current safety and security
requirements," the minister said in an interview with the Voice of
Armenia newspaper on Wednesday.

The decision to build a new reactor was also prompted by the fact
that the country has commercial reserves of uranium, Movsesyan said.

"While it was economically unprofitable to produce this radioactive
material before because of the low prices, now the situation has
changed," he said. "So Armenia will have its own energy supply and
its own nuclear reactor."

"Armenia has no goal of introducing enrichment technology in the
country. Especially since our reserves may not be big enough to enrich
uranium inside the country," he said.

"Preliminary estimates show that Armenia has enough uranium reserves
to meet the needs of its own nuclear power plant and export part of
them," the minister said.

In his view, the best solution would be to build a 1,000 megawatt
power unit since the republic’s electricity needs grow at about 4
percent a year.

In determining the capacity of the new reactor, the government is
taking into account not only internal needs of the republic but also
regional energy problems, he added.

"A 1,000 megawatt power unit will be able not only to meet the needs
of Armenia and reduce the country’s dependence on organic energy [gas,
oil, etc.] considerably, but will also have certain energy importance
in the region," Movsesyan said.

Armenia "will stop the operating nuclear reactor only when and if
it obtains alternative generating capacities that match it," the
minister said.

"When we speak about alternative capacities, we mean not only
physical parameters, i.e. the volume of electricity generation,
but also economic ones, i.e. its cost for the population," he said.

"The European Union is seeking to stop the reactor as soon as
possible. But since the reactor’s service life ends in 2016 and we
have no replacement for it at the moment, we cannot announce its
decommissioning," the minister said.

"If we build a new reactor sooner, the operating one may be stopped
before that date," he added.

"At any rate, we are clearly and openly showing the world our readiness
to move in parallel towards the decommissioning of the operating
reactor at the nuclear power plant and replacing it with a new,
more modern, effective and safe one," Movsesyan said.

In his words, the development of a feasibility study for building a
new reactor at the Armenian nuclear power plant is underway with the
assistance of foreign specialists. This work will be completed within
1-2 years. The document will "substantiate the optimal scenario for
us", the minister said, "from the optimal capacity of the reactor,
technology and equipment, to communications, infrastructure and
seismic characteristics."

He did not rule out that the Armenian nuclear power plant may use of
a Russian, Canadian, American, European or Japanese reactor, or it may
install a hybrid, as Bulgaria did, using a Russian reactor but European
electrical machines and mechanisms, and the American safety system.

"We hope that individual countries, private and/or state companies,
international organisations or their consortium will be able to form
a financial offer that is necessary for the construction of a new
reactor at the Armenian nuclear power plant," Movsesyan said.

The European Union insists that the operating reactor at the Armenian
nuclear power plant be stopped. "But we say, create conditions where
we could get access to long-term and low-interest (cheap) credits,
and we will solve all our problems," he said.