(May 20, 1994) Armenia seems determined to ride out Western criticism and reopen a controversial nuclear power station with Russian help to surmount an energy crisis that has brought the economy to its knees.
(412.4091) WISE-Amsterdam - The Metzamor power plant about 25 km (16 miles) outside the Armenian capital was closed in 1989 when Armenia was still part of the Soviet Union, after an earthquake devastated the north of the Transcaucasian state killing 25,000 people.
The plant was not damaged even though the epicenter of the tremor was only 120 km (75 miles) to the north. But the West says there are inbuilt design problems with its two Soviet-made reactors that make reopening risky.
Armenia, starved of energy mainly because of the war with its oil-rich neighbor Azerbaijan, says it is imperative that it reopens the Metzamor plant near the border with Turkey to get its economy restarted. The present target date of reopening is around spring next year.
Leading industrialized countries in the Group of Seven (G7) and the European Union have made it clear that, although they may sympathize with Armenia's plight, they are against recommissioning the plant. They say its safety standards will always be in doubt.
Land-locked Armenia has to import virtually all its fuel and relied in the past on natural gas from Turkmenistan supplied across Azerbaijan. Four years ago Azerbaijan imposed an embargo on energy supplies across its territory to Armenia because of the undeclared war over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkmen natural gas has been rerouted through Georgia to the north. But this pipeline is regularly blown up, apparently by Caucasian gangs operating a petrol racket. Supplies of Russian fuel oil by rail on the same route suffer a similar fate.
Armenia's 3.4 million people have shivered without hea-ting through three winters with temperatures as low as minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 Fahrenheit). Woodland has been laid bare as trees have been felled for firewood. Electricity sup-plies are rationed. In Yerevan homes have power for only four hours a day, often when residents are at work and cannot benefit from it.
Unable to win Western support for reopening Metzamor, Armenia sealed a deal in March under which Russia will provide technical assistance -- including advice on safety regulations -- to restart the plant and supply uranium to fuel it. The cost are estimated at about $70 million of which about $40 million would be payable for the uranium and the rest would be spent on safety and upgrading. Armenia wants a $20 million loan from the Nuclear Safety Account held by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, earmarked for such projects in the ex-Soviet Union.
Source: De Standaard (Belgium), 7/8 May 1994
Contact: WISE Amsterdam