Yuri Gagarinsky, advisor of Director of Kurchatov Institute

– I welcome Armenia’s decision to join International Uranium Enrichment Center

Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is a very interesting example of what nuclear energy means in the present world. It was shut down after the Spitak earthquake on the demand of the public for the sake of safety. But when people began cutting down trees to heat themselves, the authorities realized that they would not manage without the plant and restarted it. By doing that they saved Lake Sevan as otherwise they would have had to use its water for production of electricity at water power plants. This has proved that nuclear energy is vital for Armenia and is the only alternative for its stable development. That’s why I am happy that the Armenians are going to build new NPP. I think that we have excellent chances to win the right to build it because our WWER project has proved its efficiency. Besides, it will be much easier for the people who are presently operating Metsamor NPP and have mostly studied in Russia to deal with Russian technologies. Nevertheless, we may face serious rivalry as there are several powerful companies that have prospective projects in the sphere.

I welcome Armenia’s decision to join the International Uranium Enrichment Center. We want our enrichment capacities to be used peacefully for the benefit of the world and we want more countries to join our initiative.

Russia and Armenia are going to set up a company for joint mining of uranium. As you may know, uranium is the problem of the whole word and Russia, in particular. This problem is especially topical for our state as the Soviet Union had very big uranium reserves and we have lost them together with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Today, we have found new reserves in our territory but we still need such projects in order to develop our nuclear industry and to enhance our export potential.
 
I am glad to see that our friendly and constructive relations with Armenia in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy are actively developing.