...

Azerbaijan requires international documents on activities of nuclear power plants to be built in Armenia

Politics Materials 1 June 2011 19:13 (UTC +04:00)
The environmental impact of new nuclear power plant (NPP), of which construction is planned in Armenia, should be assessed by experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the results of the assessment should be submitted to neighboring countries.
Azerbaijan requires international documents on activities of nuclear power plants to be built in Armenia

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 1 /Trend, I.Isabalayeva/

The environmental impact of new nuclear power plant (NPP), of which construction is planned in Armenia, should be assessed by experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the results of the assessment should be submitted to neighboring countries, the director of the Radiation Problems Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Adil Garibov told Trend.

He said the Institute has already appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers with a proposal for conducting impact assessments. And the Azerbaijani government has already submitted this proposal to the IAEA.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are members of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention), said Garibov.

"Azerbaijan, as a member state of the Convention, requires a report on the environmental assessment that would enable the country to express its attitude towards it. We have also raised questions about how the plant will operate in emergency conditions. We want to know how the plant will operate not only in normal, but also in emergency situations. We should also be informed about what might happen during the operation of the plant in an emergency condition," said Garibov.

The environmental assessment should be conducted by the IAEA experts upon Armenia's order, said the director of the Institute.

"Using nuclear energy is the sovereign right of Armenia. However, Azerbaijan wants to obtain the necessary international documents. It should be assessment documents and documents that would give a guarantee on the operation capacity of the reactor. This guarantee must be given on the basis of experts' conclusions," said Garibov.

Armenia plans to build new nuclear power plant, which will be more powerful than Metsamor NPP. It is assumed that the project will cost $1 billion.

Latest

Latest