Whether a new nuclear power plant will be built in Armenia, and by whom, remains an open-ended question.

Today, Nuclear Engineering International (NEI), a monthly civil nuclear power industry magazine, writes that Armenia and the U.S. are discussing the possibility of building a new nuclear power plant (NPP) despite news last year that Armenia and Russia were also discussing the same.

“We are discussing the legal framework without which we cannot advance. Now, I can say that the ball is in the US’s court. We expect that the internal procedures in the US will be completed, after which we will begin to work,” NEI writes quoting.

Grigoryan told NEI that Yerevan is trying to diversify economic relations with international partners to enhance energy security.

Armenia’s Metzamor nuclear power plant consists of two Russian-built 376 MWe VVER reactors that started operating in 1976 and 1980. Both units were taken offline in 1988 due to safety concerns regarding seismic vulnerability. Unit 2 was restarted in 1995, and accounts for some 39% of total electricity generation in the country.

In 2023, Armenia announced it will pay US$65 million to Rosatom Service, a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, to extend the life of the Metzamor nuclear power plant’s second unit until 2036.

Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, in January 2024,  said Armenia planned to build a new NPP within 8-10 years and various options are being investigated including technologies from Russia, the USA, and South Korea.

Any new nuclear power plant in Armenia will cost between US$3-$5 billion according to estimates by sector experts.

Rosatom officials visited Yerevan in June 2023 and met with local and international sector specialists and management of Armenia’s Metzamor nuclear power plant.

Turbine Technology AAEM LLC General Director Ilya Vergizaev proposed a new plant with a capacity of 1,000-1,200 megawatts to replace Metzamor’s Unit Two that produces 400 megawatts.

 Not all experts believe that Armenia needs such a high-power nuclear block.

Vahram Petrosyan, board chairman of the state-owned Armenian Nuclear Power Plant (ANPP) CJSC that operates Metzamor, believes the country would do better with two smaller plants each with a capacity of 500-600 megawatts.

Petrosyan, last year, said Armenia’s electricity demand doesn’t exceed 1,200 megawatts and that hydro, solar and thermal plants can easily make up the difference.

Yerevan’s growing outreach to the West has been welcomed by Washington.

In May 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan signed a memorandum of understanding on “strategic nuclear cooperation”. 

NEI writes that a senior US State Department official said in 2023 that Washington is “assessing the feasibility” of building a nuclear plant equipped with small modular reactors (SMRs) in Armenia, noting that US technology could make Armenia less dependent on Russia for energy.