Epress.am News from Armenia
Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade urged the international community to support the closure of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant.
Rasizade stated this in Kiev during a summit on safe and innovative use of nuclear energy devoted to the 25-year-anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Addressing the summit, the PM said “Metsamor NPP presents an enormous threat to Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbaijan as it is located in a seismic zone,” report various Azerbaijan press.
The Metsamor NPP is the only nuclear power plant in the South Caucasus. Just a half-hour drive (30 km) from the Armenian capital, the Soviet-era nuclear power plant began operations in 1980 but closed in March 1989 following the Spitak earthquake. It was reopened in 1993 and operational since November 1995, following the energy crisis in the country. The Armenian nuclear power plant will cease operations by 2016. There are plans to construct a new power plant to replace Metsamor.