YEREVAN. – Representatives of Armenia, Croatia, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Belarus in the presence of European commissioner for energy Gunther Ettinger signed a declaration on agreement to hold stress tests for Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) of their countries.

According to the document, the states will test their own NPP with the procedures developed by European Union. It was also agreed to estimate the test results by independent experts form various countries, EU press service informs.

Stress tests will aim at estimating the reliability of 143 functioning European NPPs in the event of emergency.

EU states decided to hold the stress tests after the accident at Japanese Fukushima-1. Fourteen European countries have nuclear power plants, the majority of them is in France (58 plants), Russia (32 plants), Ukraine (15) and Switzerland (5).

According to European commissioner for energy Gunther Ettinger, the tests will be conducted on three levels: by NPP operators, by national nuclear agencies, and by European Commission and EU Council experts.

The only regional nuclear power plant is located in Armenian Metsamor city (30 km south from Yerevan).