NEW ENERGY BLOCK OF ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER STATION WILL CORRESPOND TO THE NORMS OF SEISMIC PROTECTION

ARKA
Dec 8, 2009

YEREVAN, December 8. /ARKA/. "New energy block of Armenian
Nuclear Power Station will fully correspond to the norms of seismic
protection", said Alvaro Antonyan, Head of National Service of Seismic
Protection of Armenia during the press-conference.

"Every two years we conduct monitoring of the territory on which
Armenian Nuclear Power Station is located and we plan to build
new energy block. We approve that this region is not seismically
dangerous", said Antonyan. Seismic potential of the given territory
corresponds to all the norms of seismic protection and Armenian
Nuclear Power Station and the new energy block will function normally.

Armenia plans to build new block of Armenian Nuclear Power Station
with the capacity of about 1000 MVt and according to the data of
the Ministry of Energy of Armenia, the given project can cost about
$5 billion. With the aim of involvement of foreign capital for
the implementation of the project in 2006, Parliament of Armenia
legislatively changed state monopoly of possession of new nuclear
blocks.

Construction works will start in 2011. Armenian Nuclear Power Station
is located near the city Metsamor (about 20-30 km to the South
from Yerevan). The station is operating since 1976 and currently
only second block of the station with the capacity of 407.5 MVt is
functioning. Financial flows of Armenian Nuclear Power Station are
under the trust management of Open JSC "INTER RAO EEC" since September
2003 up to 2013 the owner of which is Russian state corporation
"Rosatom". By the assessment of the specialists, Armenian Nuclear
Power Station can function till 2016.