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Armenian Metsamor NPP threatens entire region

23 January 2017 15:28 (UTC+04:00)
Armenian Metsamor NPP threatens entire region

By Rashid Shirinov

The Armenian Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is becoming increasingly dangerous for the entire region.

The Metsamor NPP, which is most debated topic among experts and environmentalists for security issues, interrupted its work on January 21 due to an accident at its high-voltage power line. After that, the substation and the first power unit of the plant were completely de-energized. The accident brought the issue of Metsamor’s danger to the forefront of discussions.

“This accident at the Armenian NPP is a harbinger of even greater problems – the plant and its equipment are outdated, and the country does not have enough money to ensure full service of such a big facility,” Russian expert Yevgeny Mikhailov told Day.az while commenting on the accident.

He said that technological disasters in the modern world are not very uncommon. “One of the most known examples is the accident at the Japanese Fukushima NPP. However, Japan unlike Armenia has a high-level technology for the NPP protection – the same cannot be said about Armenia,” he said.

“If the Metsamor NPP explodes, it will be a catastrophe for all countries of the region - Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia,” said Mikhailov.

Metsamor NPP began to operate in 1976. The license for the exploitation of the station will expire on September 1, 2016. Nevertheless, the Armenian government has made the decision to prolong the date of exploitation of the plant for 10 more years.

Environmentalists have long been concerned that the Armenian authorities refuse to close the outdated Metsamor NPP, any catastrophe at which could kill thousands in Armenia itself, and the whole region. All South Caucasus nations would suffer from a possible catastrophe. Azerbaijan and Georgia are located 120 km away, Iran – 60 km, Turkey – 16 km, the capital of Armenia itself – 30-35 km away from Metsamor NPP. Furthermore, Armenia is located in the Kura-Araz basin, any waste thrown there goes into the Azerbaijani rivers and then into the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan’s political analyst Ilgar Velizadeh is also sure that the NPP threatens the security of neighboring countries, and for this reason, the station must be closed immediately.

“The recent accident one again showed that the workability of the object is not provided at the proper level,” he said. “By solving its energy problems, Armenia creates serious risks for the ecological security of the region, which leads to increased anxiety of its neighbors, and it is getting harder to ignore them when a new emergency on the station appears,” said the expert.

Moreover, the Metsamor NPP lies close to earthquake-prone locality, the seismic stability of which is 8-9 magnitude on the Richter scale. This makes the operation of the nuclear power station in Metsamor extremely dangerous .

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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