Armenia needs to decide on the construction of its new nuclear power plant as soon as possible, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

During Thursday’s press briefing, Pashinyan, regarding his recent meeting with representatives of Russian state corporation Rosatom and a question about possible decisions with respect to Armenia’s new nuclear power plant, recalled that just a year ago the country had an electricity surplus, but now it is experiencing a deficit.

He linked the current situation to the memorandum of intent signed in Washington on August 8 last year and the establishment of two artificial intelligence factories in Armenia.

“The investment programs are of such a scale that Armenia has an electricity deficit. We need to think about what needs to be done, thing about importing electricity and generating our own sources. Previously, I was saying that we [i.e. Armenia] do not need more than a modular nuclear power plant. But now we need to realize [what capacity plant is needed], because the modular one will not be enough for us. We need to look at what will happen ten years later,” Pashinyan said.

The Armenian premier did not rule out that this may be about a 1,000MW-capacity nuclear plant.

“I cannot say yet, experts are studying the matter. The sooner we make a decision, the better,” Pashinyan noted, recalling that it takes several years to put a nuclear power plant into operation.