New sources of power

There are a flurry of stories about the nuclear power issue in Armenia. This follows the stopping of 100 million Euros in aid by the EU on the insistence that Armenia close down Metsamor.
ArmeniaNow has an article about the possibility of building a new nuclear plant, something that has been talked about recently by Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan.

They are now "demanding" one billion from the EU in exchange for the closure of Metsamor.

While Prime Minister Markaryan says that Armenia's power prospects are "mainly linked with the use of renewable energy sources" , according to an article in Electricity Forum News.

There are two arguments put forward for closing Metsamor, a) that it was built to an old, un-safe design (similar to that of Chernobyl), and b) that a nuclear power station should not be built in an earthquake fault zone. I apparently Metsamor was actually built on a special raft to withstand earthquakes.

Alvaro Antonyan, president of Armenia`s National Survey for Seismic Protection, says Russian scientists had built the power station on a special raft to resist earthquakes. Dr Antonyan says the 1988 earthquake - a magnitude 6.7 event - had not damaged the reactor.

The NuclearNo.com has a (not-surprisingly) relatively detailed look at the plant.

Posted by Matt on June 14, 2004 | TrackBack | Email to a friend