OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2007. Armenia may start mining uranium in its territory within 2–5 years, Energy Minister of Armenia Armen Movsissyan told journalists on Monday.

He said that Armenian and Russian specialists would finish prospecting uranium deposits in Armenia within a year, at earliest. So, in some 2 years it will be possible to start developing the deposits. “At longest, this may take us five years,” Movsissyan said.

He believes that it is not economically expedient to enrich uranium in Armenia as the country’s uranium reserves are not very big.

As was reported earlier, in late Nov Armenia decided to join the agreement between Russia and Kazakhstan for establishment of an international uranium enrichment center in Angarsk (Irkutsk region, Russia).  

According to preliminary estimates, Armenia has no less than 30,000 tons of uranium in its discovered deposits, but Rosatom experts believe that after additional prospecting this figure may grow by 1.5–2 times as in the Soviet times the deposits were not fully prospected.

Movsissyan said that the new nuclear power plant in Armenia would be probably built by an international consortium. In the last five years the attitude of the world community towards the construction of a new NPP in Armenia has changed. “Today, the international community is ready to help Armenia to build a new nuclear power plant,” Movsissyan said.

Movsissyan said that Russia might supply the new plant with safe and efficient reactors, Europe – with electric equipment, the United States – with automatic systems. The feasibility study of the project is supposed to be ready by Sept 2008.

Movsissyan said that Armenia and Russia were discussing the possibility for prolonging the period of financial management of Armenian NPP by INTER RAO UES (the period expires in Sept 2008).

He pointed out that the financial management of INTER RAO UES has given lots of positive results: the plant no longer has problems with fuel deliveries and planned preventive repairs.

Armenian NPP is to be decommissioned in 2043. This will require a total of 238.75mln RUR. The plant will be dismantled stage by stage. The operating 2nd unit is to be stopped in 2016. By that time Armenia is planning to build a new NPP.

Armenian NPP produces almost half of electricity in Armenia. In 2003 it was committed to INTER RAO UES’s trust.