Azernews.Az

BAKU – An Azerbaijani lawmaker’s document warning of the dire threat posed by Armenia’s obsolete Metsamor nuclear power plant was distributed among members of the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly as its spring session started on Monday.

The document, which says the facility "is a source of threats for the life, present and future of Europe", was co-signed by 30 MPs from about 20 countries, including Britain, France, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, San Marino and Andorra.

Metsamor is located 30 km west of the Armenian capital Yerevan, in a seismic zone. Following a devastating earthquake that hit Spitak in 1988, the Armenian government decided to shut the Soviet-era facility, but in 1993 it had to re-launch it due to economic challenges.

According to Rafael Huseynov, a member of Azerbaijan’s PACE delegation who drafted the document, the Metsamor issue came to the forefront after the March 11 tsunami in Japan and the ensuing explosion at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

"The Metsamor plant, built in 1970, is turning into a source of threats not only due to its location in a seismic zone, but also the fact that first-generation reactors are installed here, which are no longer used at present-day nuclear power plants," Huseynov said.

So far, PACE has drafted four documents on shutting down the Metsamor facility.

He noted that though the European Union has urged an immediate closure of the facility by 2011 and said it was ready to allocate 100 million euros to cover Armenia’s spending on its needs for electric power, Armenia did not agree.

"Armenia is not concealing the fact that it intends to use Metsamor until 2016, and further even until 2031. Considering the large number of minor quakes in this area in the past ten years, as well as the intensifying seismic activity, which is cited in seismologists’ research, in case of a major accident at Metsamor, not only Armenia but all South Caucasus countries, the Near East and Middle East would be affected," Huseynov wrote.

The Azerbaijani lawmaker’s document says PACE should take action to address the problem.