Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian government today authorized RA Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsissyan on behalf of the Republic of Armenia to sign an agreement with Russian state energy holding InterRAO UES to pull out early on its contract of managing the Armenian (Metsamor) Nuclear Power Plant, according to a statement on the Government of Armenia official website.
In arriving at this decision, the administration considered the fact that InterRAO UES has managed the MNPP since 2003, has completely fulfilled the tasks as per the agreement and appealed to the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry to pull out of the contract early.
As previously reported, a source informed Russian daily Kommersant that the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is considered a “fast-growing risky non-core activity” to RAO and that the Russian state holding wants to prematurely surrender management of the station to a company for which nuclear power is its core business.
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.