EcoLur
The fate of the new power unit of Armenian NPP continues amazing and causing concerns to specialists. “We are particularly concerned that in 2009 the deputies of the National Assembly as the instigation of Energy and Natural Resources Ministry adopted a rather strange law “On Constructing a New Nuclear Power Unit”. This law factually substituted the technical substantiation, which is a founding document for the construction of any object. The parliamentarians voted for the clauses, which shouldn’t be present in the law, namely the capacity of the new power unit prescribed by law up to 1200 Megawatt. This capacity is 2.5 times more than the need of Armenian energy system up to 2060 in perspective,” said Emil Sahakyan, Expert in Energy, in his talk with EcoLur. It should be mentioned the operating power unit ensures a capacity of 350 Megawatt.
The expert drew attention to the fact that the construction of two high-voltage lines is planned, which will run to the neighboring countries and are designed for the export of electricity from the new NPP. “It turns out that we will supply electricity to our neighboring countries at the expense of our security,” he said.
Supply with water is one of the main problems for the new power unit. “Already today we have drastic luck of artesian and natural springs for the needs of agriculture. The operating ANPP has already faced the same problems, though it’s less powerful, not to mention the new power unit,” Emil Sahakyan said.
Long-term storage of solid radioactive wastes and processed nuclear fuel is also a problem. “This problem is not solved in worldwide scale. Increase in capacity is parallel with the increase in the extent of harmful impact of radioactive gas and particulate pollutant emission into atmosphere, dumping of radioactive drain into water basins,” Sahakyan noted.
In reply to EcoLur’s question how it turns out that the International Atomic Energy Agency experts and out State Committee for Nuclear Safety assert that radiation background in within standards he said, “Measurements are conscience choice, I think if to set the place time of measurements correctly, we can obtain other results. Here we need independent studies, which we don’t have.”
In reply to the question how we can ensure energy safety, if the operating ANPP ensures more than 40% of current demands, Sahakyan replied, “We have spare capacities of thermal power plants. Nevertheless, their use is fraught with undesirable changes in electricity price formation in case of decommissioning. A number of long-term preparatory measures should be carried out in the energy system before the decommissioning of the ANPP. This problem can be solved only in the presence of will and desire of the country authorities. If you need a new energy unit for political reasons, it should comply with our demands, and not those of other countries at the expense of our safety.”
The conclusion is one: the law on the construction of a new power unit is underdeveloped and adopted by unaware parliamentarians and imposed to the whole society and people nu Energy and Natural Resources Ministry, which, as it’s known, doesn’t bear any responsibility for the people’s health and purity of environment.
January 10, 2013 at 13:41