Metsamaor Nuclear Power Plant
Built in the 1970's, the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant is a complex of two old Soviet VVER-440 Model V230 reactors.i Because of the 1988 earthquake (read more about the earthquake here) the plant was closed, but one of the reactors was reopened in 1993. This was done because the plant produces forty percent of the electricity used in Armenia. This coupled with the Azeri and Turkish blockades of Armenia created severe energy shortages that many Armenians call the “dark and cold” years. These years of energy shortages are directly related to the deforestion issue that Armenia is currently grappling with.
Even though the plant is the single largest producer of Armenia's electricity, there are several environmental and social issue that have spelled doom for the plant in it's current incarnation. The first is the location of the plant. Armenia located in a seismically active area which makes any sort of construction difficult. Under pressure from the United States and the European Union, Armenia has agreed to close to reactor. Even if the reactor is not closed down because of the agreement, the plant is planned to be retired in 2016. To aid Armenia in this process, the EU has pledged one hundred million euros to close the plant as soon as possible.ii Second, the EU has classified the VVER-440 reactors to be the “oldest and least reliable” reactors built by the Soviet Union.iii One of the biggest issues the EU has with Metsamor is the lack of safety measures that were built into it to prevent the escape of dangerous radioactive emissions in the event of a catastrophic accident.iv Even now the Turkish government is started to monitor the level of radiation in the state of Anatolia which borders Armenia. Cases of lung cancer in the area has increased dramatically recently and the Turkish government is obviously curious as to why this happened.v And while the Turkish government claims that this new program to monitor radiation levels is not related to Metsamor, the sad fact of the current geopolitical situation in the Caucuses is that everything said by governments in the area must be taken with a grain of salt. Finally, the human element of the situation can not be ignored. The Metsamor plant is located merely twenty-eight kilometers from the capital of Yerevan. Yerevan is home to one and a half million people, basically half the entire population of Armenia. The fears of the effects of a large earthquake would have on on Yerevan has been mentioned here, and many environmentalists and human rights activists believe that Metsamor is an equally important issue.
Since most people will agree that the Metsamor plant needs to be updated, the Armenian government approved the construction of a new nuclear plant in 2008. Construction of the plant may be started as earlier as this year and is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017. The cost is quite high, upwards of five to seven billion dollars, but the investment is seen by many as a wise one. The new plant could be capable of producing more than twice the electricity than the current Metsamor plant.vi The benefit to the Armenian people is obvious. By producing more electricity, prices will drop to approximately ten cents a kilowatt hour. Less obvious but just as important will be the benefit to Iran, Turkey, and Georgia. There is potential for a massive power surplus to be generated by the new plant, and the excess electricity will be sold to neighboring countries. Coupled with the idea that these three countries will be facing electricity shortages in the next few years, being an electricity broker will help keep the lights on and make Armenia a more important regional player. Unfortunately, the high price tag is going to be a difficult hurdle to surmount. If the plant costs five billion dollars, that would be almost half of the Armenian GDP for 2008 and more than double the national budget for 2009. Foreign investment is the only option, but luckily there has been some interest from Russian energy firms.vii
The nature of the Armenian economy makes the Metsamor plant a particularly divisive topic. As with many industries in Armenia; factories, mines, road construction, the choice is once again environmental and public health versus the need for paying jobs. Sergey Grigoryan and Aramayis Gasparyan are two of the men caught up in this struggle. On one hand they were exposed to radioactive dust that they inhaled during an accident nearly twenty-five years ago. The third man who was exposed died nine years after the accident when he was 34 years old. On the other hand Grigoryan and Gasparyan continue to work at the plant even after being considered partially disabled in 1992. They are aware that the plant is bad for their health, they are not ignorant. But in order to put food on the table for their families they continue to work at a place that may be slowly killing them. This mind-set is not only limited to plant workers. Residents of the town of Metsamor feel the same and unhappy with rumors that the plant may be closed. Since the plant is the largest employer of the town, they are worried about their financial futures.viii It has been said that “hunger is the best motivation.” It certainly seems reasonable that the threat of hunger continues to motivate people to work and live near the plant despite all health risks that the locals are quite aware of.
The future of nuclear power in Armenia is the future of Armenia. With no large natural gas, oil, or coal deposits nuclear power seems to be the only option for large scale power production that does not heavily rely on imports from foreign nations. The geography of Armenia is simply not suited to other “green” electric productions such as solar or wind power. While there are a few new windmills located in the northern part of the country, they will never be able to produce enough electricity to keep Armenia out of the dark. It seems like that if a new plant is not built, Metsamor will stay open past the 2016 retirement date and continue to deteriorate and poison the local residents and environment.
