Even inspection of Armenian NPP by OSART experts has not silenced Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijani Ecology and Mineral Resources Minister Huseyngulu Bagirov said political motives play a great role in the continuation of the Metsamor nuclear power plant's activity (NPP) in Armenia.

"In my opinion, the goal of power engineering is insignificant," Bagirov said. "But there are great political motives. We do not know what Armenia wants to gain from these political motives and whether it will gain at all. First, this country jeopardizes its nation, at the same time posing a threat to neighboring countries," Bagirov said.

According to him, “the attitude of countries towards nuclear power is rapidly changing in the world." "The developed Japan was defenseless against the threat. Germany thinks about taking more serious security actions. Thus, one can assume that Armenia only blackmails the world through the activity of its rather primitive and exhausted NPP," Trend News quoted Bagirov as saying.

An international team of nuclear installation safety experts, led by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has reviewed the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant near Metsamor for its safety practices and has noted a series of good practices as well as recommendations to reinforce them.

The IAEA assembled an international team of experts at the request of the Government of the Republic of Armenia to conduct an Operational Safety Review (OSART) of the NPP. Under the leadership of IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Installation Safety, the OSART team performed an in-depth operational safety review from 16 May to 2 June 2011. The team was made up of experts from Finland, France, Lithuania, Hungary, Netherlands, Slovakia, UK, USA, EC, and the IAEA.

“Any production activity poses a threat, while the results of inspections carried out at the Armenian NPP indicate that the risk is acceptable,” said Gabor Vamos, head of the OSART mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).