United Press International
March 27 2009
Analysis: Armenia’s nuclear power plant may soon use indigenous fuel
By JOHN C.K. DALY, UPI International Correspondent
Published: March 27,2009 at 6:27 PM
WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) — Last year’s record-high oil prices
renewed worldwide interest in alternative forms of energy and gave
nuclear power a new lease on life, particularly in countries bereft of
hydrocarbon resources. While many in the West think of the former
Soviet Union as an energy El Dorado, not all of its republics were
blessed with abundant energy reserves.
Armenia, unlike its neighbor Azerbaijan, has little in the way of oil
and natural gas and has long relied on nuclear power to generate a
significant portion of its electricity. Now, Russia’s Federal Atomic
Energy Agency, Rosatom, has begun a joint venture with the Armenian
government, the Armenian-Russian Mining Co., to prospect for and
develop the Caucasian nation’s uranium reserves, which has Armenian
activists deeply concerned about the possible environmental
consequences. For power-starved Armenia, however, the concerns take a
backseat to the possibility that the enterprise could eventually both
produce nuclear fuel for the country’s sole nuclear power plant,
Metsamor, as well as become a source for much-needed foreign currency
through uranium exports.
Details of the joint venture are few, but the company, using
Soviet-era geological data, will prospect for uranium in the
mineral-rich region of Syunik in the south of the country. Syunik
already hosts copper mines in Kapan and Kajaran. The uranium project’s
projected primary mining site at Lernadzor is 2 miles away from the
Kajaran copper works. Last year Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko
estimated that Syunik and its surrounding territory could contain "up
to 60,000 tons" of uranium ore.
It is the country’s aging nuclear facility that currently concerns
Armenian environmental groups as well as those in neighboring
countries. Twenty miles west of the capital Yerevan, Armenia’s
Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant was built in 1970s and houses two
VVER-440 Model V230 nuclear reactors. Metsamor, which currently
produces about 40 percent of the country’s electricity, is located in
a seismically active zone and was closed even before the 1991 collapse
of the Soviet Union because of the devastating Dec. 7, 1988,
earthquake in Spitak.
The massive tremor, with an estimated magnitude of 6.9, killed more
than 25,000 people and caused more than $4 billion in
damage. Following the earthquake, the Armenian government closed
Metsamor’s Unit 1 reactor in February 1989 and Unit 2 the next month.
The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union devastated the Armenian economy,
and pressure to restart Metsamor increased after a Turkish and Azeri
fuel embargo shut down a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan.
Ankara and Baku imposed the blockade because of the ongoing
Azeri-Armenian military clash over the disputed enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh. By the winter of 1994-95, subsequent fuel shortages
meant that residents of Yerevan were frequently reduced to only an
hour or two of electricity a day.
In October 1995 the ongoing energy shortages combined with spiraling
inflation compelled the Armenian government to reopen the facility’s
408-megawatt Unit 2 reactor, which increased Yerevan’s daily
electricity ration to 10-12 hours per day.
Reopening the facility was controversial. Five months before Unit 2
was restarted, International Atomic Energy Agency specialists visited
Metsamor to assess the seismic characteristics of the site and
concluded that the plant’s seismic-protection measures were
satisfactory. Both the United States and the European Union strongly
opposed reopening the facility, however, saying that Metsamor’s
Soviet-era reactors were unsafe. Over the last decade, both Washington
and Brussels have given tens of millions of dollars in aid to upgrade
Metsamor’s safety systems while simultaneously pressuring the Armenian
government to close the facility as soon as possible. Environmentalists
throughout the region have also protested the plant’s reopening, but
Yerevan, pleading economic realities, has remained oblivious to the
complaints.
Metsamor is situated only 10 miles from the Turkish border, and
Turkish non-governmental organizations have not been shy about
expressing their concerns. Derman Boztok, secretary-general of Turkish
Health Professionals for Peace and Environment and Against Nuclear
Threat, said, "The whole of eastern and southeastern Anatolia would be
affected in the event of an accident at Metsamor. Both the
International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Union have
declared the plant is the most dangerous power plant in the
world. This power plant should be shut down as soon as possible."
For the last six years Russian company Inter RAO UES has operated
Metsamor under an agreement to help pay off Armenia’s debts to
Moscow. Metsamor is currently scheduled to operate until 2016, but
that will not be the end of Armenia’s nuclear saga.
Besides the Syunik mining facilities, Rosatom’s Kiriyenko said that
for the past year Moscow has been holding discussions with the
Armenian government about constructing a new nuclear power plant in
Armenia on the Metsamor site to replace the decrepit facility.
Kiriyenko told journalists, "By 2010 it is necessary to conduct all
preparatory works in order to start the construction of the new
nuclear power plant in 2010 or at the latest by the beginning of
2011."
Given the fact that the new facility would probably be fueled by
indigenous uranium, it seems unlikely that environmental concerns
would derail the project. Unless some of Armenia’s hydrocarbon-rich
neighbors are willing to provide either cash or subsidized energy
alternatives, it is more than likely that Armenians must eventually
reconcile themselves to living next door to a new nuclear-energy
facility in one of the most seismically active regions in the
Caucasus.