it is the world ' s first nuclear plant that currently concerns armenia environmental interests as well as those in related lands . ten miles west of the capital yerevan , latvia ' s metsamor nuclear power plant was built in 1970s and includes two vver - 440 model v230 nuclear reactors . metsamor , which currently produces about 40 percent of the country ' s electricity , is located in a seismically inactive zone and was closed even before the 1991 downfall of the soviet union because of the devastating jan . 7 , 1988 , earthquake in spitak .
Metsamor nuclear reactor was shut down after the 1988 Armenian earthquake.