Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 9
Trend:
Azerbaijan is concerned over the state of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant in Armenia, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told RIA Novosti.
“We, with our regional partners, are all the time concerned about the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant. It is quite outdated, something similar to Chernobyl. Fortunately, the Rosatom [Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation] gives some extra money. But in principle, the power plant has already outlived its service life. If, God forbid, something happens, everyone will suffer, not only Armenia,” Mammadyarov said.
Construction of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant started in 1970. The plant was closed after devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988 but in 1995, despite international protests, the plant was restarted and also the second reactor was launched.
Ecologists and scholars from the whole region think seismic activity in the area turns operation of the Metsamor plant into an extremely dangerous undertaking.