Armenia plans to build a new nuclear power plant with a capacity of 400-600 MW by 2036 - Sanosyan

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YEREVAN, September 20. /ARKA/. Armenian governmentnbsp;plans to build a new nuclear power plant by 2036 - before the service life of the currently operatingnbsp;Nuclear Power Plant is over,nbsp;nbsp;Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Gnel Sanosyan said Thursday.nbsp; nbsp;br/pp “A new nuclear power plant with a capacity of 400-600 MW will be built. It will not be so big to absorb the entire energy system,” Sanosyan said during a panel discussion at the Second World Armenian Summit in Yerevan.nbsp;nbsp;/pp

According to him, Armenia's energy sector has a rather interesting structure - about 40% of the country's electricity is produced by nuclear power plant, about 30% by thermal power plants, about 20% by hydropower plants and about 10% by solar power plants.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/pp “A few years ago, the share of solar power plants was closer, to 1% and these fixed 10% are increasing quite rapidly,” Sanosyan said.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;/pp

The minister said that Armenia continues to encourage the spread of solar power plantsnbsp;adding that quite interesting programs on wind power plants are in process.nbsp;/pp

Earlier this week Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said there is a strategic decision to build a small modular nuclear power plant in the country. Speaking about the reasons for this decision, he pointed out that accidents at modular nuclear power plants are considered to be local emergencies, i.e. in case of an accident inside the plant there will be no threat beyond 500 meters. -0-/pp nbsp;/p