Chairman of the State Nuclear Safety Regulatory Commitее Ashot Martirosyan said that $120mln have been directed for securing safe exploitation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) since 1993.
Another $20mln will be spent until 2016 to implement the envisaged measures under the program on increasing the NPP safety, Martirosyan told a press conference in Yerevan.
The Metsamor NPP, which has been operated since 1976, is located in a seismic zone, around 30km west of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. After the 1988 disastrous earthquake in Spitak, the Armenian authorities decided to close the nuclear plant. In 1993 the NPP was re-launched.
Early in 2011 Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan stated that the operating energy unit of the Armenian NPP will be exploited until a new energy unit is constructed.
