it is the country ' s aging radioactive facility that currently affects armenian nature groups as well as those in related countries . twenty miles upstream of the metropolis yerevan , armenia ' s metsamor nuclear power plants was build in 1970s and houses two vver - 440 model v230 nuclear turbines . metsamor , and additionally produces about 40 percentage of the country ' s electricity , is located in a magnetically critical region and was closed even before the 1991 downfall of the soviet union because of the major apr . 7 , 1988 , earthquake in spitak .
Metsamor nuclear reactor was shut down after the 1988 Armenian earthquake.