Russia ready to fund new nuclear power plant in Armenia

Wednesday, May 2, 2007, #081 (1348)
The Messenger
By M. Alkhazashvili
(Translated by Diana Dundua)

According to the Russian news agency Regnum, the Armenian government announced that an agreement has been reached between Russia and Armenia about Russia funding the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Armenia. In return, Russia will become the co-owner of the plant.

Armenia says it must build a new nuclear power plant to meet the country's electricity demands. The current plant at Metsamor is severely outdated. Closing down the existing station will cost USD 240 million. The deadline is 2016, but under the European Neighbourhood Policy plan Armenia signed, they agreed to close the power plant in a shorter period of time.

The existing station provides Armenia with approximately half of its electricity needs. It consists of two reactors which have a total capacity of 815 MWe.

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.