City, Country
Metsamor, Armenia
Number & type of Reactors
2 X VVER-440/230
Net Electric Power as % in 92 of national total
752 MWe
Major population Centers in a 150 km radius and
total estimated population of 150 km r. region
Approximately 5 million including the capital Yerevan (plus parts of Georgia, Iran, & Azerbaidjan, 15 km from Turkey)
Date of commercial operation start up
or (if unfinished) date of construction start.
Closed March 1989 after major earthquake - reactor 2 restarted in October 1995
Operator/Builder
AAE
The Armenian parliament has overruled the peoples earlier rejection of nuclear power and their right to choose by restarting Metsamor reactor 2. They overturned an earlier resolution which required a public referendum for restart. The strong opposition after the earthquake in Dec.’88 (which killed 25,000 people) led to the closure of this power plant. Armenia is currently cut off from its major energy supply due to the war with Azerbaijan. Armenian officials reported in late 1994, that domestic electricity was available for only two hours a day and the cost of oil has been gone up 10-fold in recent years. Nevertheless, the G7 and EBRD steadfastly refused Armenia’s request for nuclear assistance due to the obvious dangers involved in restart. All financial and technical support has been coming from Russia. The first reactor is being worked on with plans to restart in appoximately 5 years.