TWO INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES RIVALING BID FOR ARMENIAN NUCLEAR POWER UNIT CONSTRUCTION
ARKA
Apr 15, 2009
YEREVAN, April 15. /ARKA/. Two international consortiums are rivaling
a bid for construction of Armenia’s new nuclear power unit.
Armenia invited bids for the new power unit’s construction on
February 23.
Considering the two applications, the competition committee gave
preliminary approval to both, Vasak Tarposhyan, press secretary of
the RA State Procurement Agency said, adding the committee would make
a final decision in 15 working days after studying the documents of
the two companies.
Without going into details, Taproshyan said information would be
available after the committee made a final decision.
"If it turns out that both applications meet all technical
requirements, the committee will take into consideration their price
bids," he added.
Armenia is planning to construct a 1000MW power unit in the
Metsamor-based nuclear power plant. According to the RA Ministry of
Energy, the country may need $5bln to construct the unit.
To attract foreign investments in the project, the RA National Assembly
lifted state monopoly on new power units in 2006.
Armenia plans to launch construction of the new power unit in early
2011.
Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Areg Galstyan previously said
the winner of the bid is to make a conceptual design of the power
unit and supervise construction.
Spec ialists say the Metsamor-based Armenian NPP can operate till 2016.
The NPP started operations in 1976. Only the second power unit of the
plant with a Russian nuclear reactor works. The unit covers about 50%
of Armenia’s energy demand.
By 2008, the Armenia NPP will be under the trust management of the
INTER RAO UES CJSC, subsidiary of RAO UES Russia owned by Russia’s
state atomic agency Rosatom.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
