Armenia has few alternatives to ensure its energy security

YEREVAN, March 27./ARKA/. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, speaking Tuesday at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, said that Armenia has few alternatives to ensure its energy security. 

He said that after tragedies in Chernobil and Fukushima, many became skeptical about atomic energy’s future.

“In some special cases, one of which is Armenia, there are few alternatives for ensuring stable development to people and improve living standards,” the presidential press office quoted Sargsyan as saying. 

The head of state said that energy problems, including those related to nuclear security should be considered along with associated problems. 

He said that transformation of energy resources into negative political capital. 

“Its consequences are especially heavy for those countries in want of energy reserves and searching for ways for energy independence,” he said. “Azerbaijan and Turkey, two of Armenia’s four neighbors, have been keeping our country blockaded for two decades in a clear breach of the international law – therefore, our country is left with no choice.”

Sargsyan said that Armenia remained steadfast in its determination to combat illegal trafficking of nuclear materials and ready to support international efforts to root out terrorism. 

Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, the only nuclear power plant in South Caucasus, is one of the elements of the country’s energy independence.

The plant started functioning in 1980 and ceased operating in March 1989 after the 1988 Spitak Earthquake that killed 25,000 people. In November 1995, the plant resumed operating, since the country plunged into energy crisis. 

One of the plant’s two units doesn’t function now. The other, 407.5-megawatt unit generates 40 to 50% of the total energy produced in Armenia. 

Experts say the nuclear plant can operate until 2016. -0-