Another nuclear plant will be built beside the two Metsamor units, Armenia’s Power Engineering Minister Gagik Martirosyan confirmed. The new station, to cost some $ 2 billion, is expected to be put into operation in 2004 when the lifetime of the one operating reactor, Metsamor 2, is over. An Armenian-Russian working group, which is expected to be joined by French experts, has been set up and is busy selecting a type of reactor, said Martir-osyan. Interest in building and financing a plant has been expressed by Mitsubishi and Siemens, reported Martirosyan. By 2000, said the minister, the Republic’s entire power complex, apart from the nuclear plants and the Armenenergo operator, will be privatised.
