YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Türkiye’s allegations regarding Armenia’s Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant are unfounded, the Armenian government’s Nuclear Safety Committee Chairman Khachatur Khachikyan told Armenpress.

He said there are no grounds to shut down the plant. Metsamor meets all safety standards, including seismic safety, he said.

The Metsamor NPP’s current safety level is sufficient for it to operate safely, and work is underway to further increase the safety level.

“This isn’t the first time that Türkiye is trying to manipulate the fact of continuing the Armenian NPP’s operations, it is regularly raising this, this is its right, but the issue of closing or not closing the nuclear power plant is beyond its arena, it is a matter within the jurisdiction of the country operating the given nuclear power plant, which has been stated also by the Turkish parliament’s petitions commission,” Khachikyan said.

Both Armenia and Türkiye are countries that have ratified the convention on nuclear safety. And in accordance with the requirements of the convention, the member states – including Armenia – are submitting reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding the state of the nuclear safety in the country, and the report then passes an expert assessment by other member states who can present queries. So far, all queries filed to Armenia have received comprehensive answers.

“The results of the expert observation are summed up in the report, where the actions that the country shall implement are mentioned, and the status of implementation is presented in the next reporting period. There’s no single action mentioned there that’s beyond our country’s capacity, and we’ve never refused to implement them. The actions that can be done in a short period of time are implemented during the next reporting period, while for the long-term ones we develop a roadmap for implementation and start working,” Khachikyan said.

Furthermore, as part of technical cooperation programs, the IAEA is providing expert and technical support to Armenia for infrastructure development and increase of nuclear safety.

Numerous projects have been completed as part of the plant’s lifespan extension, such as system modification and modernization. International experts were involved in safety monitoring and their opinions are taken into consideration during decision-making.

Emergency trainings are also regularly held in the country.

“As part of emergency training, any country operating a nuclear power plant holds certain events, such as developing an emergency plan, holding emergency trainings and storing the required amount of iodine tablets envisaged for nearby communities. This is a mandatory requirement. Armenia is also regularly holding the trainings and maintains a storage of iodine tablets, which is stored to distribute among the population of the nearby communities in the event of necessity,” he said.

Speaking about seismic safety, Khachikyan said that the plant’s seismic safety has been re-regularly reassessed since its re-launch in 1995. “As a result, our nuclear power plant meets the current requirements. The reassessment showed that the essential systems of the plant can withstand up to 0,35g (free fall acceleration) ground shocks. We’ve set a requirement to implement another reassessment and reequipment to substantiate that these systems can withstand up to 0,42g shocks,” Khachikyan said, adding that the reassessment objective emerged after a stress-test implemented following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.

Energy security expert Vahe Davtyan, reacting to Türkiye’s request to the IAEA to close the Metsamor nuclear power plant, also told Armenpress that the plant doesn’t have any safety problems and that Ankara’s move is purely political and pursues geoeconomic goals.

Just last year the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said he was pleased to see the safety and security improvements made to the Metsamor Armenian Nuclear Power Plant.

Earlier in September 2023, Armenia was elected to the IAEA Board of Governors for 2023-2024.