TURKISH BUSINESSMEN MAY ACQUIRE ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT’S SHARES, BUT TURKISH COMPANIES NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN ITS CONSTRUCTION

Noyan Tapan
May 22, 2009

YEREVAN, MAY 22. NOYAN TAPAN. At the May 19 sitting, the National
Security Council of the RA heard the RA Minister of Energy and Natural
Resources Armen Movsisian’s report on the current stage of the program
on construction of a new nuclear power unit in Armenia, discussed the
steps taken in this direction until now and approved these steps. As
the minister said at the RA National Assembly on May 20, by the
government’s decision, an Australian company’s U.S. subsidiary has
been selected the contractor of the power unit’s construction, and it
will select companies to do construction work, control the operation
and the training of employees, etc. 13 companies submitted bids for
participation in the tender, and competition went between two of them.

In response to the concern expressed by member of "ARF" faction Ara
Nranian that for political reasons the construction of the power
plant’s new unit may also be entrusted to a Turkish construction
organization (among others), the minister said that there is no
Turkish company doing construction of nuclear power units. It is quite
another matter that there are no restrictions on investment making,
and Turkish companies may also acquire a certain number of the power
plant’s shares. A. Movsisian underlined that regardless of who will
be the owners, the nuclear power plant will be operated under Armenian
laws and international agreements.