Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Armenia Picks Russian Technology For New Nuclear Plant

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Armenia Picks Russian Technology For New Nuclear Plant

    ARMENIA PICKS RUSSIAN TECHNOLOGY FOR NEW NUCLEAR PLANT

    Asbarez
    Dec 3rd, 2009

    Metsamor Nuclear Power Plan in Armenia

    YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Armenia's government unveiled on Thursday plans
    to create a Russian-Armenian joint venture tasked with building a
    nuclear power station in place of the aging soviet-era facility at
    Metsamor by 2017.

    Ministers also approved the overall design and main technical
    parameters of the plant's reactor to be purchased from Russia. With
    a projected capacity of just over 1,000 megawatts, it would be more
    than twice as powerful as Metsamor's sole operating reactor which
    generates roughly 40 percent of the country's electricity.

    "We are making a political decision today," Prime Minister Tigran
    Sargsyan said during a cabinet meeting. "We are agreeing to set up a
    joint venture with our Russian partners with a 50/50 ratio. This fits
    into the strategy of building a new nuclear plant which we approved
    at a meeting of the National Security Council."

    In accordance with the decision, the joint venture will be set
    up by the Armenian government and a state-run Russian company,
    Atmostroyexport. The new plant is to have a Russian AES-92 pressurized
    light-water reactor with what Energy and Natural Resources Minister
    Armen Movsisian described as a "European safety certificate."

    Movsisian told fellow cabinet members that the decision is based on the
    recommendations of WorleyParsons, an Australian engineering company
    that was chosen by the government in May to manage its extremely
    ambitious nuclear project.

    AES-92 is a new generation of the Soviet-era VVER reactors that has
    been licensed by regulatory authorities in Russia and declared to meet
    safety requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    The government instructed Movsisian's ministry to start preparations
    for supply contracts with Russian nuclear energy companies.

    Vahram Petrosian, director of a Yerevan-based research institute
    specializing in atomic energy, welcomed the choice of the reactor,
    saying that Russian nuclear facilities are "among the best in the
    world" not least because of the quality of their metal casings. "It
    is well known in the world that Russian metal is good metal," he
    told RFE/RL.

    Petrosian noted at the same time that the government should purchase
    and install other, "auxiliary" segments of the new plant from Western
    manufacturers. "In my view - and I think this is what is going to be
    done - it would be right for some of those auxiliary systems to be
    American-made," he said.

    "A lot also depends on measurement and control devices," added the
    nuclear scientist. "It is important to make the right choice of device
    operators. They can, for example, be obtained from France."

    The government has still not answered the key lingering question of
    who will finance the planned work on Metsamor's replacement. The
    total cost of the project is estimated at a whopping $5 billion,
    a sum twice higher than Armenia's state budget for this year. The
    initial authorized capital of the Russian-Armenian venture will stand
    at a symbolic 60 million drams ($156,000).

    Movsisian has repeatedly stated that Yerevan will succeed in finding
    foreign investors interested in the project. He said in May that the
    construction work will start by the beginning of 2011.

    "The process of constructing the atomic plant is going smoothly,"
    Prime Minister Sarkisian insisted on Thursday.
Working...
X