Armenia to continue construction of new nuclear power plant

All issues regarding construction of the new nuclear power plant in Armenia remain frozen, although the country's nuclear policy has not changed after the accident at the Fukushima-1 power plant in Japan, head of the state committee for settling nuclear security of Armenia Ashot Martirosyan said, News.am reports.

Armenia plans to construct a new power block at the nuclear power plant, with an output of 1000 MW. The Armenian Energy Ministry said that it costs $5 billion. In order to invite foreign capital, the Armenian parliament annulled the state monopoly on ownership of nuclear power blocks in 2006.

The earthquake and the tsunami that followed it in Japan on March 11 hit the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. A series of accidents occurred when the cooling system broke. There have been several radiation releases. People were evacuated within a radius of 20 km. The Japanese agency for nuclear and industrial security gave Fukushima-1 the highest, 7th, risk level.

Martirosyan said that the Armenian nuclear power plant must take into account the experience in Japan.