* National Academy of Sciences of Armenia

* [2006-05-02] Armenia plans to build new nuclear power plant.
Itar-Tass

November 18, 2004

Armenia - new radioactive material licensing legislation, to use against black market material sales

In an effort to staunch the smuggling of radioactive material from the former U.S.S.R., the Armenian government recently passed legislation ordering the licensing of all radioactive materials. The new legislation is intended to prevent a black market in radioactive material and equipment while protecting the population from illicit irradiation. On Nov. 5, Armenian authorities arrested Yerevan resident Gagik Tovmasian, who was found with radioactive highly toxic cesium-137 in the trunk of his car. The chief of the State Atomic Oversight Department, Ashot Martirosian, said that the cesium-137 -- which while incapable of causing a nuclear explosion, could nevertheless contaminate large areas if used in a "dirty bomb" -- was "rendered harmless." Tovmasian was charged with illegally trading in radioactive materials. Armenian nuclear specialists remarked that, depending on the amount and form, a dirty bomb made with cesium-137 fired by conventional high explosives could spread intense radioactivity over large areas of a city, rendering it uninhabitable.

[Source: John C.K. Daly and Martin Sieff, "UPI Intelligence Watch", UPI, November 18, 2004 4:08 pm ET]

July 5, 2003 Metzamor Power Station Active Again
Baku Today (Azerbaijan) with text from Zaman(Turkey)

This article seems a bit misleading. It states that Metzamor had been closed "within the scope of efforts merging the energy system in the country". But as nuclear.com readers know, Metzamor unit 2 shut down back on April 4, not long before a scheduled refueling outage, and its restart this summer was expected. In fact, with Russian-financed new fuel, the surprise would have been if the plant did not promptly return to service. Refueling won't be needed again until August 2004 at the earliest.

May 3, 2003

Armenia is expected to import about four times more natural gas in 2020 than it does now, even if the Metsamor nuclear plant continues operation. Current imports are 1.5 billion cubic meters/yr. That'll reach 5.6 billion cubic meters/yr in 2020, according to Sofreco, which is the French company that won an EU contract related to helping assure secure gas supply after Metamor shutdown. [Source: Turkmenistan.ru internet newspaper "Armenia Hopes For Turkmen Gas", May 5, 2003]

April 5, 2003

Metsamor-2 shut down yesterday, 10 days before a planned shutdown for refueling, after power failures on a major line between Armenia and Iran. The plant is expected to get started up again this summer. The sixth EC-Armenia Metsamor NPP Working Group Meeting is planned for this summer in Yerevan. Armenia's apparent inclination to keep Metsamor operating past 2004 will surely be prominently discussed.

February 20, 2003

"No matter who runs Metsamor, its equipment is obsolete and it continues to be a source of danger for the whole region." That's what Azerbaijan's international relations head, Novruz Mammadov, was quoted as saying in Russian-language report out of the Trend News Agency in Baku. Financial control of the Metsamor plant was recently transferred from Armenia to Russia. [Source: BBC Monitoring, "Azerbaijan Insists Armenian Nuclear Plant is Threat to Region", Feb 20, 2003]

* "The Metzamor plant sits on top of an earthquake zone and according to the European Union, its biggest critic, is a disaster waiting to happen... Armenia and Bulgaria have the most dangerous nuclear plants in Europe, according to a November 2001 study based on security, site, finance and age, by the Austrian Institute for Applied Ecology." [Source: Agence France Presse, "Armenia powers down nuclear power station after incident", June 27, 2002]

* Russian specialists have said they can guarantee accident-free operation of Metzamor-2 until 2016.

* Armenia signed an agreement with the European Union to close Metzamor, seen as potentially dangerous because of its location in an earthquake zone, by 2004, but there are concerns that the country may not now honour that commitment. Armenian President Robert Kocharian said he wanted to shut down the Metzamor plant, but insisted a decision about a closure date could only be taken "in parallel" with the search for viable alternative sources of energy for Armenia. He said the decision would be based "not just based on Armenia's international commitments ... (but) on the interests of Armenia itself." Vardan Movsesian, head of the country's energy regulation committee, rejected as insufficient a proposed EU loan of 100 million euros (88 million dollars) to pay for mothballing the plant and creating alternative energy sources. Building a new power plant would cost between 600 and 1,200 million dollars, according to Movsesian.