Several Russian nuclear-power experts announced on 24 October that they support the Armenian government\'s decision to continue operating Armenia\'s sole nuclear-power plant, according to RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau. In a statement released on 24 October, Armen Abakian, the director of a Moscow-based nuclear research institute, dismissed concerns that the Medzamor facility poses environmental risks and contended that the plant can safely operate for at least another 13 years. The European Union and several environmental groups have called on the Armenian government to close the aging Soviet-era plant, arguing that the plant\'s light-water reactor is inherently dangerous and unstable. Despite a preliminary agreement to close the plant by 2004, the Armenian government has reversed its position, and now seeks to keep the plant in operation. After its re-activization following a six-year closure, Medzamor now provides more than 50 percent of the country\'s energy needs, and the plant\'s management has been recently ceded to Russia\'s state-run Unified Energy Systems for five years in lieu of the repayment of some $40 million in arrears for Russian supplies of nuclear fuel. (RFE/RL)