PanARMENIAN.Net
Armenia going to reject loan granted for nuclear power plant closing?
29.09.2007 13:58 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Armenia intends to refuse from a 200 mln euro loan
the European Union was planning to grant for closing the only nuclear
power plant in the republic,’ a government official said affirming
that presently the state has no other energy sources.
Armenia has for a long time been under pressure of the European Union,
which insists on closing the outdated Metsamor nuclear power plant
built in soviet times, MIGnews.com reports.
European Commission’s Acting Director for Eastern Europe, South
Caucasus and Central Asia, Mr Gunnar Wiegand said recently in Yerevan
that the EU insists on soonest closing of the ANPP and the Euroatom is
ready to grant a 200 mln euro loan for it.
When in Yerevan, Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr
Mottaki said Iran doesn’t exclude the possibility of financing
construction of a new NPP in Armenia.
The Metsamor NPP consists of two blocks. The first was put into
operation in 1976, the second – in 1980. The NPP capacity is 815
megawatt.
After the earthquake in 1988 the USSR government decreed to close the
plant.
In November 1995 the NPP was restarted. It processes 2 bln
kilowatt-hour annually.