YEREVAN, OCTOBER 13, NOYAN TAPAN. Preparatory work is being done to choose a construction firm for the new nuclear power plant in Armenia, NT correspondent was informed by spokewoman for the RA ministry of energy Lusine Khachatrian. In response to the question about what firms are participating in the tender, she replied that nothing is known yet because the preparation for holding a tender is still underway. To recap, according to a statement of the RA deputy minister of energy Areg Galstian, construction of a new nuclear power plant will start in Armenia in 2011. A bill about the new nucler power plant will be submitted to the government for discussion in late 2008. The RA minister of energy Armen Movsisian said earlier that a new power unit with a capacity of 1000 megawatts will be built in the area of the current nucler power plant. It is planned to build the new plant within 5-7 years. The U.S, France and Russia have expressed their willingness to help Armenia replace the current Metsamor nuclear power plant with a new one. It is noteworthy that the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant has two units which were put into operation in 1976 and 1980 respectively. After the 1988 earthquake the plant was closed down by a special decision of the Soviet government. After 6.5 years of conservation, on November 5, 1995, the second unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant was relaunched. It currently generates 2 billion kwh of power a year. The program on perspective development of Armenia's electric energy sector has been worked out in two main versions: nuclear and non-nuclear. In 2006 the Armenian government announced that the operation period of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant will expire in 2016.

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