it is the province ' s aged industrial facilities that currently involves armenian conservative groups as well as those in neighboring countries . eighteen miles west of the capital yerevan , armenia ' s metsamor underground power plants was built in 1970s and houses two vver - 440 models v230 hydroelectric reactors . metsamor , which normally yields about 40 percent of the country ' s electricity , is located in a lascivious hot period and was closed even before the 1991 collapse of the ussr union because of the catastrophic dec . 7 , 1988 , earthquake in spitak .
Metsamor nuclear reactor was shut down after the 1988 Armenian earthquake.