YEREVAN, October 3 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) - An agreement to upgrade the radioactive waste management facility at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was signed Monday, a senior official said.
Gagik Markosyan, the plant's general director, said the agreement had been signed by the Armenian NPP and France's Ñogema Logistic.
"The French company will provide the technology to build a nuclear waste storage facility using the dry-burial method, along with consulting services," he said, adding that the agreement stipulated the construction of 24 additional modules, each containing 56 cassettes of spent nuclear fuel.
Markosyan said the project would be funded by the Armenian government but did not reveal the overall cost, citing the deal's confidentiality. He said $1.89 million had been allocated to the project this year.
The first additional storage facility is scheduled to be operational in 2007.
The Armenian NPP produces 40% of the country's electricity and will remain operational until 2016, according to experts.
In September 2003, the plant came under the five-year trust management of INTER RAO UES, a subsidiary of Rosenergoatom and Russia's RAO UES electricity monopoly.
The European Union has insisted that Armenia shut down the nuclear power plant, offering 100 million euros in aid. But Armenian experts have said the construction of alternative power generating facilities would cost the country about a billion euros.
