YEREVAN, March 20. /ARKA/. Construction of a new nuclear power plant in Armenia with 1,000 megawatt capacity will cost $3-4 billion, Ara Marjanyan, a UN expert on energy, told reporters on Wednesday.

Marjanyan believes that Armenia is able to find necessary funds for building a new nuclear power plant and use the technologies of the world leaders in this areas – Russia, China, as well as the French-Canadian Areva and the American Westinghouse.

‘The Armenian nuclear power plant in Metsamor will operate at least until 2026-2027. Armenia’s prospects for nuclear energy are generally good and have no alternative, since no source of renewable energy can replace nuclear energy," said Marjanyan.

He said  the nuclear power plants  do not use such sources for electricity production as natural gas or coal  and also allow reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. It was built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988. One of its two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995. 

In March 2014, Armenian government decided to extend the plant’s service life up to 2026 because of delay in building a new unit. The service life extension has become possible thanks to Russia’s financial resources. The country provided $270 million to Armenia as a loan and $30 million as a grant. -0-