Azerbaijan urges international community to step up efforts to close Metsamor nuclear power plant

Baku/26.04.21/Turan: Azerbaijan called on the world community to step up efforts to close the Metsamor nuclear power plant for nuclear safety and environmental protection.

This call is contained in the statement of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on the 35th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The large-scale consequences of this disaster showed that the safety of nuclear power plants should be of concern not only to the countries where these facilities are located, but also to the surrounding states, which may suffer from potential risks.

In this context, the international community should carefully assess the risks associated with the Metsamor NPP in Armenia.

This nuclear power plant was built using a similar technology used in Chernobyl in 1976-1980. It is located in an active seismic zone. All this puts Metsamor on a par with the most dangerous nuclear power plants in the world. Despite warnings from international organizations that called the Metsamor nuclear power plant "a threat to the entire region", Armenia continues to operate it, despite the expiration of the facility's service life.

In 2020, the European Union once again called on Armenia to close the nuclear power plant, due to the impossibility of modernizing it in accordance with modern international nuclear safety standards.

The use of outdated technology and non-observance of safety regulations during the operation of the Metsamor NPP creates serious environmental problems for a wider region. In addition, incidents involving the smuggling of nuclear materials such as highly enriched uranium raise additional concerns about the proper physical protection of the plant and nuclear materials.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry calls on “all relevant international organizations, civil society institutions dealing with nuclear safety and the environment, as well as the countries of the region to raise public awareness of the prevention of a potential disaster and to mobilize their efforts to close the Metsamor NPP.” - 06D-