Azerbaijan demands closing of Armenian nuclear power station

During a session of the Nuclear Energy International Agency general conference on September 19-23 in Vienna, the Azerbaijani president of the national academy Mahmud Kerimov made a statement demanding the immediate closure of Armenia’s nuclear power station which, according to him, is a threat to the entire region. Kerimov argued that neighboring countries Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia have expressed several times their interest to participate in monitoring of the plant. The Armenian side keeps repeating that the results of international monitoring show that the functioning of the power station is reliable and additional amount will be spent on increasing its safety and security. A total of USD 130 mln has already been spent for this purpose and according to plans the plant will be closed down by 2016.