U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATOR VISITS ARMENIA
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Jan 23 2008

The top U.S. government official in charge of nuclear safety visited
Armenia this week for talks with government officials in Yerevan that
focused on the planned construction of a new Armenian nuclear plant,
it emerged on Wednesday.

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner
Peter Lyons met senior Armenian officials Monday and Tuesday to
"familiarize himself with the status of the nuclear power plant at
Metsamor and Armenia’s plans for building a new power plant to replace
the Metsamor facility."

"Dr. Lyons also explored with Armenian officials ways that the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission can help Armenia to develop the regulatory
infrastructure needed in order to license a new nuclear power plant,"
the embassy said in a statement.

The statement added that his interlocutors included unnamed
officials from the Armenian ministries of energy, foreign affairs
and environment as well as the state Nuclear Regulatory Agency. With
Armenian government sources issuing no statements about the talks,
it was not clear if Energy Minister Armen Movsisian was among them.

"There may have been a meeting with Mr. Movsisian," a spokeswoman
for the Armenian Energy Ministry told RFE/RL. She could not give any
details of the talks.

Lyons’s visit to Yerevan underscored U.S. support for the ambitious
idea of replacing the Metsamor plant by a new nuclear facility meeting
modern safety standards. The Armenian government hopes that it will be
built by 2016, in time for the planned decommissioning of Metsamor’s
sole operating reactor which generates about 40 percent of Armenia’s
electricity.

The U.S. government allocated last November $2 million for the first
feasibility studies on the project to be jointly conducted by Armenian
and U.S. atomic energy experts this year. But U.S. diplomats made it
clear that Washington will not fully or partly finance work on the
new plant estimated to cost at least $1 billion.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress