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EU halts aid to Armenia over quake-zone nuclear plant
Paul Brown in Yerevan
The Guardian, UK
June 2 2004
The European Union has frozen €100m (£67m) in grant aid to Armenia
because the government has gone back on a deal to close the country's
only nuclear power station, which is in a highly active earthquake
zone.
The Armenian government restarted the Metsamor reactor in 1995 after
closing it in 1988 when a nearby earthquake killed 25,000 people. The
move came after four years of power cuts which left most of the
population without heating through the winters. The plant provides
one-third of the country's electricity.
The Russian-built plant has no secondary containment, a safety
requirement for all modern reactors, and is close to two major
geological faults where large earthquakes are predicted by the
country's geological service.
Nuclear fuel for the plant is flown from Russia into the main civilian
airport in the capital, Yerevan, because rail links through the
neighbouring former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan have
been cut.
The details of the air shipments are kept secret "to avoid alarming the
people", according to Areg Galstyan, the deputy minister of energy. He
opposes closing the reactor, saying that $50m (£30m) has been spent on
safety improvements at the plant and it is more important to Armenians
"to keep the electricity on".
"It was a big mistake to shut the plant in 1988; it created an energy
crisis and the people and the economy suffered. It is impossible for
the government to cause the same problem again by closing the plant,"
he told the Guardian.
The plant should stay open until 2016, the end of its original design
life, he said.
The EU grant was to help Armenia develop alternative energy to the
440 megawatt reactor, including financing a new gas pipeline from
neighbouring Iran and upgrading and developing a series of hydropower
projects. The grant would also have paid for the first phase of
decommissioning the nuclear plant.
Alexis Louber, the head of the EU delegation in Yerevan, said the
£67m of aid would be frozen until the Armenian government gave a
definite date for the closure of the power station. "In principle,
nuclear plants should not be built in highly active seismic zones.
This plant is a danger to the entire region. When the agreement was
signed in 1998 to close it in 2004, we wanted to close it as quickly
as possible.
"We realise that until alternative energy sources are in place it
is not possible to do that, but it might be possible by 2006, and
certainly could be by 2010."
He was also alarmed at the method of delivery of nuclear fuel,
using Russian transport planes. "It is the same as flying around
a potential nuclear bomb. It does not happen any where else in the
world; transportation is by sea or rail."
Dr Alvaro Antonyan, president of Armenia's National Survey for
Seismic Protection, claimed that Russian scientists had built the
power station to resist earthquakes.
The 1988 earthquake, which measured 6.7 on the Ritcher scale, had not
damaged the reactor and it was safe, he said. But he accepted that
larger earthquakes could happen there, and that there was a one in
2,000 chance of a shock that might destroy the reactor.
Paul Brown in Yerevan
The Guardian, UK
June 2 2004
The European Union has frozen €100m (£67m) in grant aid to Armenia
because the government has gone back on a deal to close the country's
only nuclear power station, which is in a highly active earthquake
zone.
The Armenian government restarted the Metsamor reactor in 1995 after
closing it in 1988 when a nearby earthquake killed 25,000 people. The
move came after four years of power cuts which left most of the
population without heating through the winters. The plant provides
one-third of the country's electricity.
The Russian-built plant has no secondary containment, a safety
requirement for all modern reactors, and is close to two major
geological faults where large earthquakes are predicted by the
country's geological service.
Nuclear fuel for the plant is flown from Russia into the main civilian
airport in the capital, Yerevan, because rail links through the
neighbouring former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan have
been cut.
The details of the air shipments are kept secret "to avoid alarming the
people", according to Areg Galstyan, the deputy minister of energy. He
opposes closing the reactor, saying that $50m (£30m) has been spent on
safety improvements at the plant and it is more important to Armenians
"to keep the electricity on".
"It was a big mistake to shut the plant in 1988; it created an energy
crisis and the people and the economy suffered. It is impossible for
the government to cause the same problem again by closing the plant,"
he told the Guardian.
The plant should stay open until 2016, the end of its original design
life, he said.
The EU grant was to help Armenia develop alternative energy to the
440 megawatt reactor, including financing a new gas pipeline from
neighbouring Iran and upgrading and developing a series of hydropower
projects. The grant would also have paid for the first phase of
decommissioning the nuclear plant.
Alexis Louber, the head of the EU delegation in Yerevan, said the
£67m of aid would be frozen until the Armenian government gave a
definite date for the closure of the power station. "In principle,
nuclear plants should not be built in highly active seismic zones.
This plant is a danger to the entire region. When the agreement was
signed in 1998 to close it in 2004, we wanted to close it as quickly
as possible.
"We realise that until alternative energy sources are in place it
is not possible to do that, but it might be possible by 2006, and
certainly could be by 2010."
He was also alarmed at the method of delivery of nuclear fuel,
using Russian transport planes. "It is the same as flying around
a potential nuclear bomb. It does not happen any where else in the
world; transportation is by sea or rail."
Dr Alvaro Antonyan, president of Armenia's National Survey for
Seismic Protection, claimed that Russian scientists had built the
power station to resist earthquakes.
The 1988 earthquake, which measured 6.7 on the Ritcher scale, had not
damaged the reactor and it was safe, he said. But he accepted that
larger earthquakes could happen there, and that there was a one in
2,000 chance of a shock that might destroy the reactor.