Azernews.Az

BAKU – A draft resolution calling for a shutdown of Armenia’s obsolete Metsamor nuclear power plant has been submitted to the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly’s body, a member of Azerbaijan’s PACE delegation has said.

Rafael Huseynov said the resolution suggests appointing a rapporteur to scrutinize the threat posed by the power station and establishing an ad hoc commission to look into its operation.

"Following the disaster in Japan, more and more people are realizing how dangerous is this power plant, which was constructed on the basis of Soviet-era technology and is located in a seismic zone," Huseynov said.

The resolution, 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.

Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizada has recently called on the world community to assist in shutting down the Metsamor power plant. He told a conference in Kyiv on Tuesday that the facility located in Armenia, which has been hit by devastating earthquakes in the past, poses a serious threat to neighboring Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

The Metsamor power plant, built in 1970, is located 30 km west of the Armenian capital Yerevan. Following a devastating earthquake that hit Spitak in 1988, the Armenian government decided to shut Metsamor, but in 1993 it had to re-launch the outdated facility due to economic challenges.