In April 2006 EU declared interest in shutdown of the Armenian nuke plant.
A devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, provoking blasts in energy units of Fukushima-1 nuke plant, showed that human life is so dependent and so prone to different challenges.
The 9-magniture earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan on 11 March. Underground shocks caused tsunami of more than ten meters in height, which in turn resulted in massive destructions. By the latest data, over 10,000 people died or went missing in the result of the natural calamity. The earthquake caused a failure in the cooling system at Fukushima-1 and Fukushima-2 nuke plants due to which the regime of emergency was applied there. Blasts have hit the first, third and second energy units and fire occurred on the fourth power unit at Fukushima-1 since Saturday. In the result of the failure, the radiation level in the area of the station increased which made the powers to start evacuating people from the area of 20 kilometers around the plant.
In a number of countries the awareness of the depth of this threat has already caused a number of definite decisions. Thus, German social-democratic and ‘greens’ demanded from the government to shutdown seven oldest German nuke plants including Neckarwestheim, Biblis A, Biblis B and Underwezer. A demonstration organized by those who are opposed to nuclear power was held in Baden-Württemberg. On 13 March, 60,000 people formed a human chain, extending to 45 kilometers.
German has already passed a decision to close three nuke plants built before 1980 for three months for safety check
After Germany Switzerland also put on hold plans to build and replace nuclear plants due to failure on Japanese nuke plants, Swiss environment minister said. ‘Security is a complete priority’, Energy Minister Doris Leuthard told in a communiqué.
All the same time, there was a proposal in the Ukrainian parliament to cut an agreement with Russia to complete two nuclear reactors.
Over the emergency situation on Japanese nuclear stations, EU Energy Commissioner Gunter Oettinger convened a meeting between energy ministers of EU countries, experts in nuclear safety and suppliers and operators of nuclear stations. After this, the decision to hold stress tests of the European nuke plants was declared. “The nuclear plants in neighbor states must be checked rigorously including in Turkey, Russia and Switzerland”, the news release of the European parliament reports by results of Oettinger’s speech.
These measures prove that the European states and international organizations realize the threat of nuclear plants in case of force majeure.
Unfortunately, now we do not see the world community to use all mechanisms of pressure on Armenia which has a Metsamor nuke plant. It consists of two units, with the first launched in 1976 and second in 1980. Along with being outdated, Metsamor is located in a seismically active zone, some 30 km west of Armenia’s Yerevam. After the devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988, Armenian authorities decided to close it, which can be a bright proof that even the Armenian powers of that period realized the threat of Metsamor nuke plant in case of force majeure and natural cataclysms. Unfortunately, despite it all, the new leadership of Armenia decided to resume Metsamor station in 1993 and not to close it down anymore.
Here, it would be timely to remind that the problem of nuclear threat posed by Armenia was raised by President Heydar Aliyev in 2002 during the meeting with IAEA General Director Mohammad al-Baradei.
In April 2006 EU declared interest in closing down the Armenian nuke plant. Austrian Foreign Minister Hans Winkler said technologies of the Armenian nuclear plant are outdated and not compliant with European security standards.
In addition, Georgian physicist Mikhail Kaviladze says this station is old and the risk of failure is high for this reason. Its location is also a shortage in terms of safety. As the station is in the mountains, problem may appear with water supply for the emergency cooling of the active zone of the reactor.
This problem is actual nowadays. Thus, head of the TURKSAM Center of strategic research Sinan Ogan said Metsamor power plant is the most dangerous in the world.
He said the Metsamor power plant located at a distance of 16 km from the Turkish border and 40 km from the Armenian capital of Yerevan uses old technologies and it is a center of a possible disaster.
“In case of any failure at the nuke plant, all eastern and southeastern regions of Turkey will be covered by the radiation cloud. Radiation will cover not only Kars, Erzurum, Agri, Igdir, Yerevan and Nakhchivan, but also Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and naturally the rest part of Turkey”, Ohan says noting that the country’s government must demand the immediate closure of this power plant.
The most interesting is that according to Armenian ecologists the seismic activity of this region turns the operation of this nuclear plant in Metsamor into a very dangerous action, despite the new sample reactor.
For example, chairman of the Green Union of Armenia Akop Sanasaryan says the nuclear station cannot locate close to water and agricultural systems, seismic areas, densely populated regions. According to him, the reactor must locate at least 150 kilometers of Yerevan. “This means violation of all norms and implications can be disastrous”, he said.
Along with environmental concerns, Chairman of the Armenian Powermen Assocation Slavik Sargsyan voices concern over the deficit of qualified staff in Armenia, able to operate the station. “Certainly, Russia will help us but the situation with specialists in nuclear plants in our energy sector is strained”, he said.
As we see, there is a great number of grounds, proving the need to close the Metsamor station. Unless it works, our region is under the threat of facing the second Chernobyl. And the responsible are the Armenian powers and the authorities of the leading countries, which do not exert pressure on Armenia to make it shut down the Metsamor power plant.
Nurlan
News.Az
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