The possibility of giving the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant to the Russian side has not been discussed. The matter is that being a member of the agreement on non diffusion of nuclear technologies, Moscow has no right to become owner of nuclear plants outside its territory. And Armenia has no right to give or sell to someone the plant that it on its territory. This is why the mechanism supposing joint management of financial inflows was chosen. “On behalf of Russia, Armenia has found a partner that will pay for the supply of nuclear fuel and get dividends,” the co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission on Armenian-Russian cooperation Serzh Sarkisian says. Thus, the government of Armenia will hold the 100 percent of shares to whom the concessionaire will present the plans of its every year. The parties of the deal may prolong the agreement after 5 years.
Though the resources of the plant will expire after 13 years, the European Union insists on its pre time closing, because the Nuclear Power Plant was constructed in old technology. Armenia has undertaken the commitment to close the plant before 2004 if it finds an alternative source. The EU promised to support in attracting resources (Construction of a new Nuclear Power Plant will require about USD 1,5 bln and an equal sum will be necessary for closing the old one). Despite the fact that Armenia follows accurately its commitments, the issue of creation of alternative sources of power energy has not been solved yet. This is why Yerevan can postpone the closing of the plant will 2008. However, judging from all, the Nuclear Power Plant will work till 2016 when its resources will expire. We shall note that in Russia and other CIS countries there are tens of plants constructed with the same project as the Armenian NPP and this does not cause serious protests in the European countries.
The RAO YEES controls also the water power plants of Sevan-Hrazdan cascade and the Hrazdan Thermal power plant. Their capacity allows producing volumes of energy exceeding the demands of Armenia. “We are going to realize immediately serious investments in the energy system of Armenia in order to deliver energy from there to Georgia,” Anatoly Chubays said on the eve of signing the agreement. We shall remind that in the beginning of this week the inhabitants of the Marneuli regions of Georgia, populated with Azeris, closed the railway and motorway connecting Tbilisi and Yerevan demanding from the Georgian authorities to buy power energy from Armenia. Being led by certain political principles, the official Tbilisi does not hurry to ask the help of the Armenians. The implementation of the program of the RAO YEES will give the Armenian power energy an access to Georgian market. It is not excluded that in future the power energy produced in Armenia may be sold also in Turkey or Azerbaijan.
