US commissions $3.4 million training simulator for Armenian nuclear power plant

The US has commissioned a $3.4 million simulator for Armenia’s Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, designed to ‘enhance safe operations’ at the plant.

US Ambassador Kristina Kvien commissioned the simulator on Tuesday.

She was joined by Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Cooperation in the Office of Nuclear Energy at the US Energy Department Aleshia Duncan and Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia Jan Plešinger.

‘[The] US Department of Energy’s partnership with [Metsamor] showcases the latest US technology and is another milestone in the United States’ more than 25-year nuclear energy cooperation with Armenia’, wrote Kvien in a post on X.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the EU Delegation in Armenia also wrote about their visit to the plant, saying that the EU has allocated ‘an additional €17.9 million ($21 million), to Armenia to improve nuclear safety and radioactive waste management, as part of ongoing cooperation under the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA)’.

On Wednesday, Armenian Territorial Administration and Infrastructure Minister David Khudatyan received a delegation led by Duncan and Kvien. Citing a readout issued by the ministry regarding the visit, Armenpress wrote that Khudatyan ‘expressed particular gratitude for the state-of-the-art simulator recently installed’ at the power plant.

They also ‘reaffirmed their mutual willingness’ to deepen collaboration and discussed ‘a number of issues’ related to Armenia–US energy cooperation, ‘including in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy’.

The Metsamor Plant is the only nuclear power plant in the Caucasus region. Its only operational reactor came online in 1980 and has produced 26% of Armenia’s electricity in 2021.

In recent years, Armenia has courted both Russia and the US — among others — to build a new reactor for the ageing power plant.

In December 2023, Armenia contracted the Russian state nuclear agency, Rosatom, to extend the life of the Metsamor until 2036, with talks ‘ongoing’ about building a new reactor at the ageing facility.

In July 2024, Armenia announced that it was in ‘substantive’ negotiations to build a new nuclear power plant in Armenia.

Environmental campaigners, Turkey, and the EU have all expressed concerns about the safety of the plant, urging the government to shut it down.

Armenia and US in talks to build new nuclear power plant

The head of Armenia’s Security Council has said that Yerevan and Washington are in ‘substantive’ negotiations to build a new nuclear power plant in Armenia. On Wednesday, Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said the two countries were now discussing a legal framework for the proposed power plant’s construction. ‘Without a legal framework, we cannot move forward. At this moment, I can say that the ball is in the US’ court’, he said, adding that work on the power plant would begin after

OC MediaArshaluys Barseghyan