YEREVAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2021) Armenia is negotiating with Russia the possibility to get a new nuclear power plant, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Suren Papikyan said in the parliament on Thursday.
Last week, while on a working visit to Moscow, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan voiced his intention to discuss the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We expect to have a new nuclear power plant and are already negotiating on this issue with our partners from Russia. We also have proposals from other countries," Papikyan said.
He specified that at the moment one of his deputies together with the head of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant are on a visit to Russia. The minister also noted that Yerevan was ready to discuss profitable offers from other countries which it is studying.
According to Papikyan, the Metsamor facility continues to cooperate with Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom with the existing bilateral contracts worth $40 million.
The minister also expressed certainty that the modernization of the nuclear power plant would significantly impact the national energy market, particularly, the tariffs, given the nuclear sector produces the cheapest electricity.
The Metsamor facility is located 22 miles west of the capital city of Yerevan. It consists of two VVER-440 model reactors � the first began operating in December 1976 and the second one in 1980. In 1988, following a devastating earthquake in the country's north that claimed more than 25,000 lives, the site was shut down for seven years. In 1995, one of the reactors was restarted in a bid to mitigate the nation's energy crisis.
The Armenian government now aims to extend the service of the existing reactor by 2026 while gradually introducing new power units and implementing the renovation program jointly with Rosatom.�
