Baku Threatens Armenia's Metsamor Nuclear Plant

摘要

As military confict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated to levels not seen in over a decade, Baku this week threatened to destroy Armenia's Metsamor nuclear power plant. “The Armenian side mustn't forget that the most advanced missile systems our army has are capable of launching a precision strike on the Metsamor nuclear power plant, and that would be a huge tragedy for Armenia," Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargyakhly said in a Jul. 16 statement. Metsamor had been home to two 376 megawatt pressurized water reactors, but after a devastating 6.8 magnitude earthquake in December 1988 Unit 1 was permanently shuttered, whereas Unit 2 was restarted in 1995 and is currently slated for a life extension through 2040 (NIW Aug.3'18). The Azeri threats against the plant “qualify" as a crime against humanity and “undermine regional security," Armenian President Armen Sarkissian said in a Jul. 16 tweet. “Such threats are an explicit demonstration of state terrorism and genocidal intent of Azerbaijan," Armenia's foreign ministry added the same day. Metsamor's functional reactor is actually in the middle of an outage, while engineers from Rosatom subsidiary Atomenergoremont work to modernize the plant.