Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

[Mher]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

Medzamor Adequately Safe, Say Nuclear Experts

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenia’s Medzamor nuclear power plant poses an “acceptable” level of risk to environment and can “in principle” operate beyond its design life span, international nuclear safety experts said on Thursday following a two-week inspection conducted there.

While identifying several “good plant practices” at the Soviet-era facility, the experts working under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommended specific measures which they said would further boost its operational safety.

“There is no industrial activity that does not pose any risk, but I think the results of our inspection show that this risk [at Medzamor] is acceptable,” Gabor Vamos, head of the IAEA’s ad hoc Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) for Armenia, told a news conference in Yerevan.

The Armenian government solicited the OSART mission about two months ago, citing the need to learn lessons from the grave accidents at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It also hoped to ally renewed domestic and international concerns about Medzamor’s safety.

Like Japan, Armenia is situated in a seismically active region prone to powerful earthquakes. Local environment protection groups say the Fukushima disaster should be a wake-up to the authorities in Yerevan to shut down the Medzamor plant as soon as possible.

Armenian government officials and nuclear experts dismiss such concerns. One of their arguments is that the plant has undergone numerous safety upgrades since one of its two reactors was reactivated in 1995.

The OSART mission that arrived in the country on May 15 comprised 11 experts representing the IAEA, the European Union, as well as eight individual countries, including the United States, Britain and France. They spent two weeks inspecting Medzamor’s reactor and other facilities, assessing the plant’s safety and maintenance procedures and interviewing its personnel.

Vamos, who is from Hungary, said his team has submitted its preliminary findings to the Armenian government and will release a final report within three months. He said they contain three dozen proposals and recommendations and seven “good plant practices” that will be recommended to the nuclear industries of other nations for consideration.

According to Vamos, one of those examples is the fact that the Medzamor staff take wide-ranging safety measures on their own without relying on private contractors, as is the case in many nuclear plants.

The IAEA stressed this fact in a separate statement issued on Thursday. “This unique approach resulted in staff acquiring deep knowledge and skills to successfully operate and maintain new equipment,” it said.

The statement also said, “The plant has developed a specific, comprehensive system supported by procedure to mitigate the consequences of a station blackout by providing power to systems and components necessary for cooling the reactor in emergency conditions.”

On the downside, Vamos noted that Medzamor technicians do not quickly identify all equipment deficiencies that require urgent repairs. The Armenian authorities should work out a more rigorous mechanism for keeping the plant’s equipment in an “ideal state,” he said.

“The [Medzamor] administration expressed a determination to address all the areas identified for improvement and requested the IAEA to schedule a follow-up mission in approximately 18 months,” read the IAEA statement.

The Vienna-based nuclear watchdog also stressed that the OSART mission to Armenia was not a full-fledged “regulatory inspection.” “Nor is it a design review or a substitute for an exhaustive assessment of the plant’s overall safety status,” it said.

Medzamor’s sole functioning reactor generates about 40 percent of the country’s electricity. The EU classified VVER 440-V230 light-water reactor in the 1990s as one of the “oldest and least reliable” of 66 such facilities built in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The Armenian government has pledged to decommission it by 2017, in time for the construction of a new and more powerful nuclear plant at the same site over 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. Work on that ambitious project was supposed to start in 2012.

However, the head of Armenia’s State Committee on Nuclear Safety, Ashot Martirosian, indicated last August that the construction could be delayed by several years, suggesting that the existing reactor will function longer than planned.

Asked to comment on such possibility, Vamos said, “There are examples in the world of nuclear reactors, including VVER-440 reactors, having their life spans extended, but to our knowledge, there is no official plan yet to prolong the exploitation of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant,” “Therefore, that issue was not considered during our inspection.”

“But in principle, there is such technical possibility,” added the Hungarian nuclear expert.

http://asbarez.com/96332/nuclear-experts-find-medzamor-adequately-safe/

[Mher]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

my pleas to nuke Armenia and put the people out of their misery are gonna come true
Its a danger to ... Turkey

Is this the start of an another anti-Armenian rant? Your statements are really beginning to call into question your motivations and allegiance. With that danger to Turkey part, your either just spreading disinformation or you've been reading too many Turkish sponsored articles.

As a structural engineering, I can assure you Metsamor is fine, and is far ahead in terms of safety compared to other facets of Armenia's infrastructure. The IAEA already approved Armenia's extension of the life of Metsamor beyond 2016 and claimed with the proper work, which Armenia is investing $300 million into, its more than fine to extend the life of the plant to 2026 and beyond. The IAEA would know more about Nuclear safety than the fascist Turks, or the technocrats in Brussels. The plant is working in perfect condition and with safety. There's no need to get melodramatic.

If an earthquake were to strike, there are far bigger concerns such as Yerevan's poorly built gray Soviet apartment complexes housing hundreds of thousands which, even excluding poor construction due to corruption, were not designed for an earthquake above 6.0 (7 or 8 on MVD scale). That should be our collective concern as Armenia. Not some Nuclear Power plant 30 km outside the capital whose breakdown might cause cancer to 12 people 40 years later.

Also, I don't know how much you know about Nuclear Plants, but there's no magic turn off switch on Nuclear Plants. Decommissioning a power plant takes years, and in the case of Metsamor would cost over $300 million dollars. Building a new identical one would cost about 2 billion dollars.

Metsamor might have been a top concern if Armenia was some wealthy Western European Nation with a big budget and not much to worry about. But given the fact that Armenia has many more significant and urgent challenges that need to be addressed immediately, the Nuclear Power Plant is pretty low on the list.

In the Energy Sector, Armenia's biggest concern should be becoming energy independent to not be a pawn and so easily manipulated by foreign powers, specially Russia when it comes to energy. A big part of this is developing Renewable energy, and making the most of Hydro Power Energy.

Overall, the most urgent current Infrastructure topics for the Armenian state are:


Opening of the Abkhaz Railway
Iran-Armenia Railway
North-South Highway
Energy Independence
Replacement of Soviet apartment complexes
Development of Gyumri and Vanadzor
Martakert-Vardenis Highway

[Eddo211]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

Very true, its a disaster waiting to go off......it must be shut down and decontaminated.

Talking about nuclear power.....how about acquiring nuclear bomb. Imagine, Armenia has nukes but Turkey has not. We can talk to them then.
Russia should give us a few.

[Chubs]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

Just shut down Metsamor already, the last thing Armenia needs is a nuclear disaster. If something terrible happens, my pleas to nuke Armenia and put the people out of their misery are gonna come true..

Id rather Armenians live without electricity than see the whole damn region, our homeland, be destroyed by this plant. Its a danger to Armenia, Turkey, and probably the whole damn world.

[Federate]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

Gazprom Armenia to invest $49.3 million in construction of new sport and education complex in Yerevan

YEREVAN, April 14. /ARKA/. Gazprom Armenia CJSC will invest $49.3 million in construction of a new sport and education complex in Yerevan, the press office of the city municipality reported on Tuesday after the city council's session, where the council members approved the construction project.

The complex will be built in the suburb of Yerevan, in Tsarav Akhbyur Street.

The complex will consist of a school, kindergarten, an indoor swimming pool, a gym, a playground for mini football, an indoor artificial ice rink, an underground car parking place and leisure zone.

The project is estimated to create 236 new jobs. Gazprom Armenia CJSC, a subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom, is the sole importer and distributer of Russia's natural gas in Armenia. ---0-----
- See more at: http://arka.am/en/news/sport/gazprom....ZHimC11n.dpuf

[Mher]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

yeah I'm not too excited about the concept either. I doubt the tourism draw is going to be enough to justify the cost which is bound to be over 5 million. More if you don't want a basic design. That money can be used to complete the Martakert-Vardenis Road this year. Armenia already has more than enough religious attractions, I doubt this is going to be the difference maker. Not to mention its bound to get surpassed by another one somewhere else a few years after its erected.

[Haykakan]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

I am trying to work out who more dimwitted tha Armenian authorities or diaspora "good doers".

Maybe both !!

You make a good point but unfortunately this is not math where two negatives equal a positive..this is two negatives equals a unmistakable lack of knowledge, taste and imagination.

[londontsi]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

YEREVAN. - Armenian authorities will help to choose location if
Armenian communities agree to install the world's largest cross in
Armenia, Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan toldArmenian News-NEWS.am.

The Armenian communities of France and Lebanon have an intention to
install the world's largest cross.

Here is a great example of how dim witted and unimaginative our diaspora is.

Diaspora representatives want to erect world's largest cross in Armenia

I am trying to work out who more dimwitted tha Armenian authorities or diaspora "good doers".

Maybe both !!

[Haykakan]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

Here is a great example of how dim witted and unimaginative our diaspora is.

Diaspora representatives want to erect world's largest cross in Armenia

13:45, 06.01.2015


YEREVAN. - Armenian authorities will help to choose location if
Armenian communities agree to install the world's largest cross in
Armenia, Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan toldArmenian News-NEWS.am.

The Armenian communities of France and Lebanon have an intention to
install the world's largest cross.

"The authors of the project will decide on the amount of investments
by themselves, but the Diaspora representatives should first
coordinate the projects with Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II,"
she said.

Asked about her attitude towards the initiative, the Minister said she
cannot have negative opinion on something "that is related to
Christianity, will promote tourism in Armenia and will make Armenia
popular in the world".


Armenia News - NEWS.am

[Tsov]

Re: Armenia: Future Projects and Developments

German Loan To Boost Armenian-Georgian Energy Ties

The Armenian government secured on Tuesday an 85.2 million-euro ($105.6 million) German loan which it said will be used for synchronizing the national power grids of Armenia and Georgia through a new transmission line. The state-run German development bank KfW disbursed the loan with an agreement which one of its senior executives signed in Yerevan with Finance Minister Gagik Khachatrian and the head of Armenia’s national electricity transmission network, Aram Ananian. A statement released by the Armenian Ministry of Finance said the loan will finance the construction of the high-voltage line and a substation on Armenia’s border with Georgia. It said that Yerevan will also receive 20 million euros in grants and loans from the European Union for the same purpose. The German and EU funding, the statement went on, will ensure the implementation of the first phase of a project designed to make the Armenian and Georgian power grids “operate in the same regime.” This will make it much easier for each country to import electricity from the other, according to the Finance Ministry. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili and Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze discussed the issue with their Armenian counterparts when they visited Yerevan in August. The Armenian Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said at the time that two neighboring states will be able to more than triple mutual electricity supplies after the new transmission line goes on stream in 2018. It was also officially announced during Gharibasvhili’s trip to Yerevan that a little-known company partly or fully owned by a Georgian businessman, Teimuraz Karchava, will invest $600 million in building a natural gas-fired power plant in northern Armenia that will supply electricity to Georgia. Under an agreement finalized by Karchava and Energy Minister Yervand Zakharian, the Armenian government will give the company tax breaks and guarantee “supplies of sufficient volumes of gas” to the plant. The precise dates of its construction are still not known.

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/26734145.html