Raphael Arutyunyan, First Deputy Director of Institute of problems of safe development of nuclear power industry of RAS, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences:

 — Agreement on cooperation in NPP construction in Armenia is the chance to extend the Russian presence at the world market

On July 29 in Erevan the Armenian government meeting was held which approved conclusion of the agreement with the Russian government “On Cooperation in Construction of New Nuclear Power Units in the territory of Armenia”.

Raphael Arutyunyan, First Deputy Director of Institute of problems of safe development of nuclear power industry of RAS, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences:

It’s no wonder that the Armenian government seemed to be American-oriented approved conclusion of agreement with our government on cooperation in construction of new power units. Indeed, we also cooperate in the field of defense, I mean interaction of the national defense forces in case of security or armed attack hazard.

Besides, Armenia has already had a positive experience of Russian nuclear scientists work – Metsamor NPP, to be more precise, it’s the second power unit which was once started up by us after the NPP shutdown and utterly saved the Armenian people from extinction when there were interruptions not only in electric power but gas supply. We are experienced in construction and normal, safe plant operation in severe seismic conditions and judging by the approval on the part of the Armenian government they rely upon the Russian nuclear power industry a lot.

For Russia it is certainly the chance to extend its presence at the world nuclear market. And as you know it is critical when the speed of nuclear power plants construction in the country has slowed down because of changes in power consumption rate of growth.