IAEA Head Inspects Medzamor Nuclear Plant

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
United Nations nuclear watchdog, inspected the nuclear plant at Medzamor
and discussed with Armenian leaders their plans to delay its
decommissioning during a visit to Armenia on Wednesday.

Official news sources in Yerevan said Yukiya Amano, the director
general of the IAEA, was also briefed on the Armenian government’s
ambitious project to replace the aging Soviet-era facility by a new
plant meeting modern safety standards.

“You are planning to extend the nuclear plant’s life span and then
halt and decommission it,” a government statement quoted Amano as
telling Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. “At all those stages, our agency
is obliged to assist Armenia in carrying out that work smoothly.”

“Armenia is committed to further deepening our productive cooperation
with the IAEA,” Sargsyan said. “The government is paying a lot of
attention to ensuring safe exploitation of the atomic block.”

Amano discussed the matter at a separate meeting with Energy Minister
Armen Movsisian. A statement by Movsisian’s ministry said they looked
into ongoing efforts to enhance the plant’s “level of safety and
physical protection” as well as “technical assistance” for the
decommissioning process.

Amano and other IAEA officials accompanying him familiarized
themselves with the safety measures when they visited Medzamor after the
meeting with Movsisian. According to the ministry statement, they
inspected various units of the plant generating about 40 percent of
Armenia’s electricity.

Medzamor’s sole functioning reactor was supposed to be shut down by
2017, in time for the planned construction of a new and more powerful
facility at the same site more than 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. But
with the ambitious project clearly falling behind schedule, the Armenian
government has indicated that the current plant will operate longer
than planned despite lingering domestic and international concerns about
its safety.

Amano discussed the project estimated to cost $5 billion with
Sarkisian, Movsisian as well as Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian. He
was reported to call for “joint efforts to ensure a high degree of
transparency” in its implementation
.
“The prime minister assured him that Armenia is interested in that
and ready to continue to act in an open and transparent manner,” the
government’s press office said. It said Sargsyan also told Amano that
the government has already drawn up a “timetable for measures to extend
the existing nuclear plant’s operations and ensure its safety.”

The long-standing concerns over Medzamor’s safety were rekindled last
year by grave accidents at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The
authorities in Yerevan responded by initiating a two-week inspection of
Medzamor by IAEA experts.

The Vienna-based watchdog’s ad hoc Operational Safety Review Team
(OSART) concluded in June that the plant poses an “acceptable” level of
risk to the environment and can, in principle, operate beyond its design
life span.