YEREVAN, April 4. /ARKA/. Rafael Harutyunyan, one of the world most prominent nuclear safety experts and the deputy CEO of Russia’s Institute of Safe Nuclear Energy, finds the European Union’s demand to close the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant groundless.

He told RIA Novosti that the VVER 440 (Armenian Nuclear Power Plant operates a similar reactor) is unique exactly for its safety.





“Finland’s Loviisa nuclear power plant, one of the best nuclear power plants in the world, operates VVER 440,” he said on the sidelines of Atomexpo forum in Belarus.





Harutyunyan said that the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is the only plant in the county to ensure stable energy supply.





There are no faults here, he said, and there is no need to close it.

The scientist said that after the closure of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania the country began facing a severe energy shortage.





Armenia has a similar sad experience – it faced the same difficulties when its nuclear power plant ceased operating after the earthquake in 1988.





“After the nuclear power plant halted the country plunged in dark ages for six years,” he said.





There was neither light nor heating then, he said, and many people were stricken hard by this.





Armenia’s nuclear power plant in Metsamor located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan, was built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988 that killed some 25,000 people and devastated much of northern Armenia. One of the plant’s two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995. Armenian authorities said they will build a new nuclear power plant to replace the aging Metsamor plant. The new plant is supposed to operate at twice the capacity of the Soviet-constructed facility. Metsamor currently generates some 40 percent of Armenia's electricity. But the government has yet to attract funding for the project that was estimated by a U.S.-funded feasibility study to cost at as much as $5 billion. In 2012 October the Armenian government decided to extend the service life of the Armenian nuclear power plant in Metsamor by another ten years. -0-

21:49 04.04.2013