In the Ist week of
July, Armenians cheered as
their government reopened a
controversial nuclear power
station 20 miles west of the
earthquake-prone capital
Yerevan. Officials are optimistic that the reactor, located at Medzamor, will be
working at its optimum
capacity by September,
meeting 30 per cent of
Armenia's energy requirements and giving users 12
hours of power a day.
Armenia has spent millions of dollars in modernising the Medzamor reactor. The plant, built in 1976,
had managed to escape damage despite a massive earthquake in the region in 1988
which killed about 25,000
people. However, it was shut
down in 1989 after thousands took to the streets to
demand its closure.
The energy crisis in the
country had been compounded by a blockade
imposed by Armenia's
neighbours because of its
conflict with Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh. Starved
of power, Armenia's factories ground to a halt and for
3 icy winters the people had
to make do with power for a
mere 1 hour a day. The
forests paid the price for this
unprecedented crisis: an
estimated I million trees
were felled for firewood,
leaving a bald landscape to
face the scorching Caucasian summer.
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