Ex-President: Georgia should immediately start negotiations with Armenia over ensuring Metsamor NPP's safety

Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze urged the Georgian authorities to immediately start negotiations with the Armenian authorities over the safety of the Metsamor nuclear power plant. Reports about the Armenian nuclear power plant’s state "cause severe anxiety", Shevardnadze said in an interview with the Georgian weekly "Asaval-Dasavali".

"As it turned out, the Armenian NPP is in dire condition and there is no security guarantee and it threatens the entire region," he said.

Shevardnadze believes that in such circumstances, the Georgian authorities "simply should" start negotiations with Armenia and to do everything "to avoid the expected tragedy."

The Metsamor nuclear power plant , which began its work in 1976 , is located in a seismically active area approximately 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. After the devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988, the Armenian authorities decided to close the Metsamor NPP, but economic straits forced the country's leadership to restore the plant’s activity in 1993.


/Trend/