Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan said
that technical-economic figures and the configuration of the new
energy block at an Armenian nuclear power plant have been prepared.
The tender for equipment will be announced soon, News Armenia reports.
He noted that the new energy block will be up-to-date with a high
security level.
Russia and Armenia have signed an inter-governmental agreement on
cooperating in nuclear sphere.
Armenia plans to build a new energy block for the power plant, to
produce 1 gigawatt. The Armenian Ministry of Energy said that the
project is worth approximately $5 billion. Armenian cancelled the
state monopoly for new energy blocks in 2006 to attract private
capital to the project. The construction will start in 2011, and the
new energy block will be launched by 2017.
The head of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko said that Russia will finance 20%
of the construction of the nuclear power plant. A joint
Russian-Armenian company was established, covering 40% of construction
expenses, 60% will be financed by investors. Kiriyenko added that
exact expenses have not been determined yet.
Armenia has only one nuclear power plant, near Metsamor (approximately
30 km south of Yerevan). It was launched in 1980 and stopped in 1989
due to the earthquake in December 1988 which killed 25,000 people. It
was relaunched in 1995 to cope with the energy crisis in the republic.
Two energy blocks are equipped with Russian VVER-440 first generation
reactors. The first block was shut down. The second block produces
407.5 megawatts, covering from 40% to 50% of the Armenian demand for
energy. The nuclear power plant can function until 2016.
