Pashinyan says installing modular nuclear reactor in Armenia is ‘politically interesting’
YEREVAN, January 16. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited today the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee to discuss the agency's 2023 activity report.
Acting Chairman of the Committee Khachatur Khachikyan and his deputies reported on what was done in 2023 to ensure safe operation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
The Prime Minister was presented a sequence of steps for analyzing and further actions regarding the government’s plan to build a new nuclear power unit.
Pashinyan was quoted by his press service as saying that the option of choosing modular reactor is ‘politically interesting.’
"In case of accidents of these kind of reactors, there is no need to create emergency response zones. In other words, if there is an accident, we will not have to apply measures to protect the population within a radius of one hundred kilometers," the prime minister said.
Last December the government approved the allocation of $65 million to extend the service life of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant until 2036.
The government will sign a contract with Russia's Rusatom Service, a division of Rosatom State Corporation, to extend the facility's service life.
The Armenian nuclear power plant, the only one in the South Caucasus region, is located near the town of Metsamor, about 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. It accounts for about 40% of the country's electricity generation.
The government has already extended the facility's lifespan by ten years until 2026 after a major modernization and technical upgrade.
Armenian authorities want to build a new nuclear power plant with a capacity of about 1000-1200 MW. Several options are being considered - either construction of a power unit with a capacity of about 1000 or 1200 MW, or two units of 1000 MW each.
Tentatively, the new NPP will be built on the territory adjacent to the existing NPP (about 80 hectares) and will allow using part of the existing infrastructure. -0-
