Negotiations over building a new nuclear power plant in Armenia are underway, the Armenian Prime Minister said. According to Pashinyan, the offer to build the plant was made by one of the owners of GeoProMining, one of the largest industrial companies in the country.

Pashinyan added that "Armenia will no longer export copper concentrate and import ready-made copper. Second, the construction of a new nuclear power plant is part of this programme. Negotiations on the construction of the plant have already started."

According to Pashinyan, the new plant would not be fully privately-owned and operated as the government should have active participation in it.

Armenia's only active nuclear power plant is the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant.

Metsamor was built in 1976 and decommissioned in 1989 because of public outcry following the Spitak earthquake. Metsamor is situated in a seismically active area.

Due to major energy shortages across the country, the facility was brought back online in 1995. Metsamor supplied 40% of Armenia's electricity as of 2015.

Earlier this year, the European Commission said in a report on the implementation of the partnership agreement with Armenia in 2020 that the Metsamor plant should be closed as soon as possible because it could not be rebuilt following international nuclear safety standards.

Since 2019, the Pashinyan government has repeatedly stated that Armenia and Russia have been negotiating over the construction of a new atomic energy station to replace Metsamor, and the topic was again brought up during Pashinyan’s visit to Moscow last April.