Baku, Azerbaijan, May 16
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
It is necessary to do something with Armenia's Metsamor nuclear power plant in its current state, says Vladimir Yevseyev, political analyst, senior fellow at the International Security Center of the Institute for World Economy and International Relations.
"The Metsamor nuclear power plant's reactor should be replaced with a gigawatt nuclear reactor of new type, which is completely safe," Yevseyev told Trend May 16, adding this would be the best option.
"Initially, the Metsamor nuclear power plant consisted of two reactors of 400 megawatts, one of which was taken out of service," the expert said. "Afterwards, Russia offered to construct a new plant, which would generate one gigawatt of electricity."
The expert said Armenia doesn't have a consumer for this electricity and there is a problem to find a buyer.
He added that the new type of Russian reactors would be absolutely safe for using in the seismic zone in which Armenia is situated.
Armenia has a nuclear power plant, Metsamor, built in 1970. The power plant was closed after a devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988. But despite the international protests, the power plant's operation was resumed in 1995. Moreover, a second reactor was launched there.
According to the ecologists and scholars all over the region, seismic activity of this area turns operation of the Metsamor nuclear power plant in an extremely dangerous enterprise, even if a new type of reactor is built.