YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. It is envisaged that by late 2008 the RA National Assembly will pass a law on construction of a new nuclear power unit in Armenia. Then official negotiations on participation in the power unit construction work will begin with various donor states and producers of nuclear power units. At the same time, the development of documents on a tender for construction of a new power unit will start. The RA minister of energy and natural resources Armen Movsisian stated this at the opening ceremony of the 3rd working consultation on coordination of the international assistance for raising the safety level of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP). The consultation is being held on September 11 and 12. He said that the Armenian government has made a number of decisions related to the decommissioning of the ANPP. In particular, a fund on ANPP decommissioning was set up under the jurisdiction of the RA ministry of finance. The ANPP makes regular payments (in the ammount of the cost included in the tariff of generated power) to the fund. Besides, the government has adoped a strategy of decommissioning the ANPP. "The Armenian government is ready to stop the nuclear power plant at any moment when the equivalent replacement nuclear capacities will be created, and the nuclear capacities to be created and the import ways of primary energy must maintain at least the current level of the country's energy security," the minister of energy stated. According to him, with the assistance of the USAID the documents "Feasibility Study on Construction of a New Nuclear Power Unit in Armenia" and "Assessment of the Environmental Impact of the New Nuclear Power Unit" have been developed. In the words of A. Movsisian, Armenia must be involved in the regional electric power market currently being formed. It is also envisaged to form a ring-like electric power system of Black Sea countries, as well as to create North-South parallel connections of the energy systems of Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iran. "The country with an opportunity to generate not expensive base electric power at a nuclear plant, thus reducing the release of greenhouse gases from thermal power plants into the atmosphere will have a primary place in the future competition for servicing the regional energy markets," the minister underlined. In his opinion, Armenia should assume such a role in the region as it has 30 years' experience of operating a nuclear power plant, the respective personnel and infrastructures. Cooperation in the form of working consultations on coordination of international assistance for raising the ANPP's safety level has been implemented since 2006 when during his visit to Yerevan the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed Al Baradei offered IAEA's technical assistance in the issue of raising the safety of the second power unit of the ANPP. According to A. Movsisian, considerable work has been done in this direction since the start of the indicated cooperation. He thanked all donor countries (to which Russia has also joined) that provided assistance for the implemenation of this work. It was proposed discussing all the possible options so that the technical assistance offered by Russia will be used at the ANPP as quickly as possible. The acting head of the ANPP's Engineering Safety Section Antonio Godoy said in his speech that the IAEA has informed the Russian side in writing about its willingness to allocate 10 million dollars for raising the safety of the ANPP. He noted that in addition to the Russian delegation, a delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is taking part for the first time in a working consultation on coordination of international assistance for raising the ANPP's safety level. A. Movsisian informed reporters that since 1996, assistance of about 90 million dollars has been provided for the work on increasing the safety of the second power unit of the ANPP. More than half the sum - 50-55 million USD was allocated by the U.S, the remaining sum was given by EU countries. This year Russia will start providing assistance of 10 million dollars for this purpose. This sum will be spent in 2009 in the priority directions to be determined by a working group of the IAEA. As regards the attitude of the donors and the IAEA to the construction of a new nuclear power unit, the minister said that "everybody accepts the formula that we will close the operating power unit when we have a new alternative capacity." That is the reason why discussions on raising the safety of the operating power unit and on construction of a new one are being held in parallel. According to the minister, the construction of the new power unit in the area of ANPP will allow to use the infrastructures of the nuclear power plant, therefore less money will be spent on construction of a new nuclear power unit.

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