Ukrainian companies ready to help build Armenian nuclear power plant

YEREVAN, November 19. / ARKA /. Ukrainian enterprises are ready to participate in the construction of the new unit for the Armenian NPP, Dmitry Kolesnikov, head of the Ukrainian State Agency for Management of State Corporate Rights and Property, said in Yerevan today during the sixth session of the Armenian-Ukrainian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation. 

He said Ukrainian companies Turboatom, Electrotyazhmash, Zorya - Mashproekt could supply turbines, generators and automated control and management systems," he said.

According to Kolesnikov, Ukrainian companies have accumulated extensive experience in the production of equipment for nuclear power plants.

"Our companies are ready for this work, we only need to sit down and discuss this issue, » he said.

Armenia’s nuclear power plant in Metsamor located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed some 25,000 people and devastated much of northern Armenia. One of the plant’s two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995. Armenian authorities said they will build a new nuclear power plant to replace the aging Metsamor plant. 

The new plant is supposed to operate at twice the capacity of the Soviet-constructed facility. Metsamor currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia's electricity. But the government has yet to attract funding for the project that was estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study to cost at as much as $5 billion. Last month the Armenian government decided to extend the service life of the Armenian nuclear power plant in Metsamor by another ten years. -0-