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Experts fear Armenian Chernobyl

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  • Experts fear Armenian Chernobyl

    Experts fear Armenian Chernobyl

    The Times/UK
    November 16, 2004


    Jeremy Page reports from Yerevan

    Local people and the European Union are at odds over a Soviet-era reactor


    THE Metsamor atomic plant looms menacingly behind Eduard Kenyasyan as
    he offers a slice of homegrown water melon on the end of his
    knife. `Nuclear melon?' he asks with a mischievous grin. After living
    next to this Chernobyl-era power plant on a seismic fault in southern
    Armenia for 30 years, he is usedto the threat of nuclear disaster.

    `If anything happens, it will affect the whole country, not just me,'
    he says, shrugging.

    The rest of Europe has not taken such a relaxed approach. The European
    Union has lobbied hard for the plant, just ten miles from the border
    with Turkey,to close this year. It says that the pressurised
    water-reactor, based on first generation Soviet technology, may not
    withstand another serious earthquake. Alexis Louber, the EU's
    representative in Armenia, caused an uproarrecently when he said that
    keeping the plant open was the same as `flying around a potential
    nuclear bomb'.

    Metsamor was built in the 1970s and shut down after a big earthquake
    in 1988, which killed at least 25,000 people in northern Armenia and
    hit 5.0 on the Richter scale around Metsamor. Yet the Armenian
    Government reopened the plant's second unit in 1995 because of severe
    power shortages and now says that it can continue working until 2016 -
    and possibly 2031.

    The resulting dispute pits growing Western concerns over obsolete
    Soviet nuclear facilities against Armenia's determination to preserve
    its independence and energy security. The EU has campaigned for the
    closure of dozens of atomic plants in the former Soviet Union since
    Chernobyl, and its concerns have intensified since expanding to
    Russia's borders.

    Although Metsamor uses different - and safer - technology from that at
    Chernobyl, it lacks secondary containment facilities to prevent
    radioactiveleakage in the event of an accident, European experts say.

    In addition, nuclear fuel has to be flown to Yerevan from Russia and
    then driven along a bumpy road to Metsamor once a year, because
    Armenia's border with Turkey is closed.

    Jacques Vantomme, the EU's acting Ambassador to Georgia and Armenia,
    said: ` If there is an earthquake tomorrow, would it create a nuclear
    disaster? I don' t know - it depends on the size of the earthquake.

    `The EU's policy is that we want the closure of the plant at the
    earliest possible date. This type of nuclear plant is not built to EU
    standards and upgrading it cannot be done at a reasonable cost.'

    The EU has offered â=82¬100 million (£70 million) in financial aidto
    shut the plant and develop alternative energy sources, but Vartan
    Oksanyan, the Armenian Foreign Minister, described that as
    `peanuts'. Metsamor notonly provides 40 per cent of Armenia's energy,
    it also sells excess power to neighbouring Georgia. Decommissioning
    the plant alone could cost more than £270 million, according to local
    experts. With no oil and gas, and scant wind and water resources,
    Armenia has few alternative energy sources.

    The mostly Christian nation is also reluctant to rely on imported
    energy because of its history of hostility with its Islamic
    neighbours.

    `Armenia knows this plant has to go,' Mr Oksanyan said, â=80=9Cbut
    let's make sure we have the capacity to replace it before we close it
    down.'

    Power shortages between 1989 and 1995 have left deep scars on the
    country. Almost all Armenians can recall sleeping in multiple layers
    of clothing or waking to use their one hour of power each day.

    Armenia's forests were devastated by people cutting wood for
    fuel. Gagik Markosyan, the head of the Metsamor plant, said: `I saw
    the energy crisis myself. We can't talk about closing the plant down
    overnight.'

    He said that more than £27 million had been spent on improving safety
    since the plant reopened. British experts have been training staff
    there for the past three years.

    The second unit, opened in 1980, was originally designed to work until
    2010, but as it was shut for six years, it could now work until
    2016. Tests by Russian experts on similar reactors show that Metsamor
    could, in theory, operate until 2031.

    `As an engineer, I would not exclude that,' Mr Markosyan said. For
    him, as for most Armenians, a new nuclear plant is the only viable
    alternative. TheEU is reluctant to foot the bill, however, arguing
    that Armenia, without the Soviet Union, would never have borne the
    hidden costs of development and decommissioning.

    `We need the plant,' Mr Kenyasyan says. `Like it or not, we can't live
    without it.'

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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