Wednesday, March 30 2016 03:15

Without development of nuclear energy Armenia will face serious environmental problems, as it will have to use its water resources at full. Knarik Hovhannisyan, a well-known Armenian environmentalist, specialist in water resources, Ph.D in Engineering Science, made such statement talking to ArmInfo's correspondent. 

That is why, the environmentalist said, the so-called "expert" society and officials in the neighboring Azerbaijan have been wiping-up hysteria over alleged environmental risks emerging from the Armenian NPP and radioactive pollution of the rivers of Araz and Kura.  "This is nothing but slur, groundless statements. Quite the contrary, Armenia's refusal from the development of nuclear energy will create such serious risks," she said.

Hovhannisyan said the Armenian NPP operates under constant control of the IAEA specialists. The plant's operation is perfect from the viewpoint of environmental impact. "Only an ignorant person could say that radioactive waste (strontium, cesium) may pollute water resources. The only factor is perhaps the completely harmless, the so-called heat 'pollution' - certain increase in the temperature of the water cooling the reactor, but it circulates in a closed loop cycle." The specialist says the main sources of water pollution in Armenia are residential waters, the so-called natural polluters. There is no technogenic pollution of the rivers in Armenia for lack of developed industry and chemical factories.  To substantiate her views concerning the importance of the developed nuclear energy for the settlement of Armenia's environmental problems, Knarik Hovhannisyan said the talks about possible replacement of the NPP with a big number of small HPPs are wide open to criticism. 

"Today, we - the environmentalists advocate for licensing the construction of small HPPs only in case the projects meet all the environmental requirements. Many owners of small hydropower plants strive to discharge the entire water-flow leaving no chance for the rivers to preserve their biodiversity. Although there are Russian and other technologies of construction of small HPP that help preserving the biodiversity of the water eco-systems, these technologies are often neglected in pursuit of money," she said.
The environmentalist said the UNDP has provided resources for calculation of the methodology of water consumption by the small HPPs, but the project is implemented very slowly. "The consumption limit must be observed to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems of the rivers and lakes that have their limit of tolerance. Otherwise, ecosystems will change and the inhabitants will gradually die out," the expert said. 

In addition, she said, in the Soviet period, there were about twenty bio-treatment facilities on the rivers in the country. Meantime, there are no such facilities now, only a few "mechanical" water screens.  At the same time, the major challenge to the ecology of water resources of Armenia is global warming, Hovhannisyan said.  
"Many data of our scientists testify that the seemingly insignificant increase in the temperature for Armenia by 2025 will result in 15% reduction of water resources.  It is a scientifically proven fact. This will seriously affect the ecosystems of rivers and lakes. Low water will affect the consumption of water resources for irrigation, hydropower engineering and water supply. Eventually, we will lose the ground water basin too. Therefore, the government has focused on the construction of a number of big water resources, as the discharge records of mountainous rivers in Armenia are very unstable. The major flow in the region is in the territory of Armenia, but the country is so far unable to regulate it and uses less than one-fourth of its own water resources," the specialist said.

Therefore, she said, Azerbaijan and Turkey regularly wipe-up hysteria over the 'environmental problems' of the Metsamor NPP, since they are not interested either in the extension of the Armenian NPP's service life or in the construction of a new power unit. They are well aware that refusal from nuclear energy will not only make the country economically weaker, but also drive it to the verge of environmental disaster.