Azerbaijan's minister of the ecology and natural resources has accused Armenia of blackmailing the region with its nuclear power station.
Huseyngulu Bagirov told journalists on Monday that international attitudes towards nuclear power were changing in the wake of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
"Even well governed countries like Japan are at risk. Neither government nor the public there realized the full extent of the danger. A country like Germany which generates a high proportion of its power from nuclear and renewable sources is thinking of taking serious action on this," Bagirov said.
"Armenia, however, has other ideas. To keep a very old, already obsolete nuclear power station in operation amounts to nothing less than world blackmail. I think this has far more to do with politics than with power generation. We don't know what Armenia wants to or will gain from this, but Armenia is putting its own people and its neighbours at great risk."
An operational safety review team from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, has just completed an inspection at the plant. The team did not find anything out of the ordinary, but did make 16 recommendations and 14 suggestions to improve the plant, team leader Gabor Vamos said. A full report on the inspection will be submitted to the Armenian government in three months time.
Built in the 1970s, the Armenian nuclear power station has light water-cooled reactors and supplies some 45% of Armenia's electricity. It was closed down in 1988 following the major earthquake in Spitak but reopened in 1993 when Armenia was suffering an acute shortage of electricity.
Russia and Armenia signed an agreement on the construction of a new nuclear power station at Metsamor in August 2010. Construction is expected to start in late 2012.
The Armenian nuclear power plant is operated by Russian power company Inter RAO UES.
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