Mexican newspaper named Armenia Moscow’s 'political lapdog'

Baku. 25 October. REPORT.AZ/ Popular Mexican newspaper The News has published an article on Metsamor nuclear plant of Armenia and its threats.

Report informs referring to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Mexico, chief editor of the newspaper Thérèse Margolis in her article entitled Chernobyl Revisited states that potential nuclear disaster, which could turn out to be more devastating than that of Chernobyl or even Fukushima is being kindled by geopolitical stratagem and economic gambits.

Although it was deemed fit by the International Atomic Energy Agency to keep running through 2016, Yerevan says it will continue to operate Metsamor through 2026, the author states.

The article also informs that a new nuclear plant was supposed to be opened this year to replace the aging Metsamor facility. However, due to national budget cuts and the shortage of international support, not only is the new not operational, its construction has not even begun.

The author describing Armenia as one of poorest countries in the former Soviet Union and ‘political lapdog’ of Moscow, states that government had counted on Russia to pay for half of the new plant, and had courted France to help finance the remaining $2.5 billion.

At the same time, T. Margolis reveals one of the biggest concerns with the Metsamor plant: “It has no containment building, a steel or concrete shell that would prevent radiation from escaping in case of an accident”.

The author quotes the Vienna-based Austrian Institute of Applied Ecology, according to which, there is not enough water in the plant to cool the active part of the reactor in case of accident.

“For now, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is playing the waiting game, gambling the safety of his people - and those of other nations - in order to meet his country’s energy needs”, the paper reads.