Georgia , Tbilisi, March 28 / Trend, N. Kirtskhalia /
Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze urged the Georgian authorities to immediately start negotiations with the Armenian authorities over the safety of the Metsamor nuclear power plant.
Reports about the plant have "caused severe anxiety," Shevardnadze said in an interview with the Georgian weekly Asaval-Dasavali.
"As it turned out, the Armenian NPP is in dire condition and there is no security guarantee and it threatens the entire region," he said.
Shevardnadze believes in such circumstances the Georgian authorities "simply should" start negotiations with Armenia and to do everything "to avoid a tragedy."
The Metsamor nuclear power plant began working in 1976 and is located in a seismically active area 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. After the devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988, the Armenian authorities decided to close the Metsamor NPP, but economic straits forced the
country's leadership to restore the plant's activity in 1993.