KOCHARIAN REAFFIRMS PLANS FOR NEW NUCLEAR PLANT
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 30 2007
President Robert Kocharian on Wednesday reaffirmed the Armenian
government’s ambitions plans for the construction over the next decade
of a new nuclear power station in place of the aging Metsamor plant.
Kocharian was quoted by his office as telling local and foreign
experts sitting on his advisory Council on Atomic Energy Security
that the project is "justified both in terms of energy security and
economically." No further details were reported.
The government took the first major step towards the project’s
implementation early last year when it pushed through parliament a bill
that allows private and foreign ownership or co-ownership of nuclear
facilities located in Armenia. Officials spoke of the would-be new
plant as the most viable alternative to Metsamor, which meets about
40 percent of the country’s electricity needs and is due to be closed
down by 2016.
The government is already making preparations for its decommissioning
which has long been sought by the United States and the European
Union. Kocharian told the council that the Armenian Ministry of
Energy will come up with a relevant plan of actions within two
months. According to the presidential press service, he discussed the
idea of replacing Metsamor by a similar facility at a separate meeting
with Adolf Berghoffer, a German nuclear scientist chairing the council.
Meeting with university students in Yerevan in late April, Kocharian
said the government is still ascertaining the necessary capacity and
cost of the new plant. "I think that as early as in 2012-2013 active
work will be implemented for a new nuclear power plant and the upgrade
of the current one," he said.
Putting the project into practice would cost Armenia at least $1
billion, a sum comparable to its government budget for this year.
Armenian officials hope that foreign investors will foot the bulk of
the bill.
So far only Russia has shown interest in financing the project. The
issue was on the agenda of a late April visit to Yerevan by Sergey
Kirienko, head of Russia’s Federal Agency on Atomic Energy (Rosatom).
Also, Deputy Energy Minister Areg Galstian told reporters on Tuesday
that the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental commission on economic
cooperation has set up a working group tasked with looking into the
matter. He cautioned that discussions are currently held "on the
conceptual level."
"It’s a long process and we have already embarked on it," said
Galstian.
U.S. reaction to Yerevan’s plans has been far more lukewarm.
"Especially given the geology here, the earthquake zone, it might
be better to come up with an alternative to a second nuclear power
plant," Tom Adams, a senior State Department official coordinating
U.S. economic assistance to former Soviet republics, said in May
2006. "Right now, we are leaning against that option," he added.