Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Nuclear Country Notes

Armenia

A NPP came into operation at Medzamor, 64 km from the capital Yerevan, in 1976 but it was closed down in 1989 following an earthquake the previous year. Concern over the station's safety from a seismic point of view was exacerbated by the repercussions of the Chernobyl incident.

One of the two original WWER units (Medzamor-2) has been upgraded and refurbished, coming back into commercial operation in 1996 with a capacity of 376 MWe. It provided about 43% of Armenia's electricity output in 2005.

Armenia has faced international pressure, especially from its neighbour Turkey, to shut down Medzamor-2 on the grounds of safety. In May 2006 the Armenian Minister of Finance and Economy announced plans for the construction of a
1 000 MWe nuclear plant to replace Medzamor-2. The Deputy Minister of Energy was reported in April 2007 as saying that Armenia needed a 1 000 MWe unit built by 2016 and a second unit after 2020.