Russia, Armenia seal agreement on cooperation in nuclear unit construction

YEREVAN, August 20. /ARKA/. On Friday, Russia and Armenia signed an agreement on cooperation in construction of a nuclear unit and nuclear power plants in Armenia’s territory.

Armen Movsisyan, Armenian energy minister, and Sergey Kiriyenko, the head of Russian Rosatom State Corporation, signed this document after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan’s meeting in Yerevan.

Armenia plans to build a new 1000-megawatt unit. The Armenian energy ministry says that the construction is estimated to cost $5 billion.

In 2006, Armenian National Assembly abolished the government’s right for sole ownership of new nuclear units in an effort to attract foreign capital for the project implementation.

The construction is planned to be launched in 2011.

Kiriyenko said ahead of the signing procedure that Russia can finance over 12% of the construction.

An Armenian-Russian joint company is already established for implementation of this project.

This company will finance no less than 40% of the construction cost.

The remaining 60% of the financial resources needed for the construction are planned to be attracted from investors.

Kiriyenko added that the precise cost of the construction is not calculated so far.

The Armenian government is now searching for investors.

Armenian Nuclear Power Plant, the only nuclear plant in Armenia, sits near Metsamor (20 or 30 kilometers south of Yerevan).
The plant started functioning in 1976, and now only the second, 407.5-megawatt unit operates.

INTER RAO UES belonging to Russian state-owned Rosatom runs the plant’s funds from 2003 and will run them until 2013. Specialists say the plant can operate until 2016. -0-
 

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18:57 08/21/2010