ARMENIA HOPES THAT RUSSIA WILL HELP BUILD NEW NUCLEAR POWER REACTOR
ARKA
OCTOBER 12, 2009
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, October 12, /ARKA/. In an interview with Russian newspaper
Kommersant Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian said his
government hopes that Russia will help it build a new nuclear power
reactor.
Armenian authorities said they will build a new nuclear power plant to
replace the aging Metsamor plant. The new plant is supposed to operate
at twice the capacity of the older, Soviet-constructed facility,
which is 30 kilometers west of the capital, Yerevan. Metsamor currently
generates some 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity. Australian company
Worley Parsons has been selected to manage the project.
"Russia is a key partner of Armenia in development of peaceful
nuclear programs and we hope that as a strategic ally it will join
this project as well,’ Nalbandian said to the Moscow-based daily.
According to him, this is a complicated project and it is difficult
to say whether it could be realized in cooperation with one or several
partners. He said Russian companies showed interest in this project.
The Sydney-based Worley Parsons engineering company will be managing
construction of a new nuclear power station that should replace
Armenia’s aging Metsamor plant by 2017. With a market capitalization
of approximately $3 billion as of June 2008, Worley Parsons was one
of the world’s largest providers of engineering services to the en
ergy and other industries. The company has operating offices in 14
countries, including Russia.
The Armenian government has yet to attract funding for the project
that was estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study to cost at as
much as $5 billion.
With a projected capacity of 1,000-1,200 megawatts, the new facility
would be more than twice as powerful as Metsamor’s sole operating
reactor that generates more than 40% of Armenia’s electricity.
Under a 2003 agreement Armenian nuclear power plant’s financial flows
are managed by Russian Inter RAO UES, owned by Russian state-run
Rosatom corporation. The agreement expires in 2013. Experts say the
plant can operate until 2016.