Yerevan Gearing For Nuclear Plant Closure

Thursday 23, June 2005
Armenia Liberty
By Atom Markarian

The Armenian government is starting preparations for the closure of the nuclear power station at Metsamor demanded by the West and hopes to complete what promises to be a very costly process before 2016, officials said on Thursday.
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The remarks are the first official indication of an approximate time frame for Metsamor’s closure. The Armenian authorities are facing growing pressure from the United States and especially the European Union that believe Soviet-era facility does not meet modern safety standards and should be closed as early as possible.
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Yerevan has said all along that it will not close Metsamor, which meets nearly 40 percent of Armenia’s energy needs, before finding an alternative source of relatively cheap electricity. That source, according to Galstian, is a gas pipeline from Iran which is currently under construction as well as three new hydro-electric power stations that are due to be built within the next decade.
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The decommissioning process itself will cost hundreds of millions of dollars which the cash-strapped Armenian government hopes to raise from Western donors. [...] {Deputy Energy Minister Areg Galstian} said its first phase alone will require $44 million worth of expenditures.
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.