We do not want to make a political selection in the issue of building a new nuclear power plant, as this is an economic project. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is on vacation and heads the ruling Civil Contract party’s proportional representation list of candidates for Armenia’s parliamentary election on June 7, told this to reporters Thursday.

Pashinyan said that they will continue to work in this regard with the country that will submit the most profitable offer. “This is not a political selection, but a purely economic issue,” he emphasized.

The premier informed that Armenia has received respective proposals from Russia, South Korea, France, and the US.

“Our calculation is that taking into account the pace of development of solar energy, we [i.e. Armenia] will not need large nuclear power plants with a capacity of 1000 MW or 600 MW. We have our own resource—in the form of solar energy. We want to have a modular nuclear power plant, because if necessary, it will be possible to build new power units in the future. And most importantly, a modular plant cannot lead to a Chernobyl-like accident. In the event of an accident at a modular plant, nearby settlements are not evacuated,” Pashinyan said.

He reminded that Russia also has a modular plant project, but it is a floating nuclear power plant. “We need to study all the proposals, both in terms of technology and price,” Pashinyan concluded.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1035376