Armenia invites international experts to assess safety of its NPP

In the context of the accident at Fukushima-1 Japanese nuclear power plant (NPP), Armenia has invited international experts to assess risks and develop additional measures to improve safety at the Armenian NPP, said Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisyan at the sitting of his government.

Zaven Khlgatyan, head of the Centre of Earthquake-Resistant Construction of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) of Armenia said that the Armenian NPP can withstand a 9-point earthquake. He stressed that the seismic risks in the area of the city of Metsamor, where the NPP is located, are not greater than 8 points.

According to Sarkisyan, the NPP in Japan was stronger damaged not by the earthquake but by the 10-meter-high tsunami.

He also reported that Armenia had invited international experts to examine the risks and design additional measures to improve safety at the Armenian NPP, the "News.am" reports.

Meanwhile, local ecologists warn that the Metsamor NPP is located close to tectonic breaks, while earthquakes are unpredictable. In particular, Akop Sanasaryan, chairman of the Union of the Greens, is convinced that the Armenian NPP is very dangerous. "There are five tectonic breaks, one of them is 34 km, the other is 16 km, and the third is 500 meters off the reactor," said Mr Sanasaryan as quoted by the Radio Liberty.

Let us remind you that on August 20, 2010, during the state visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Armenia, an agreement was signed to build a new nuclear power unit. According to Sergey Kiriyenko, head of the "Rosatom", Russia will finance more than 20 percent of the nuclear unit construction budget and plant to start the construction in 2011.