it is the country ' s aging aluminum reactor that currently involves armenian environmental issues as well as those in neighboring republics . twenty miles west of the main city , yerevan ' s metsamor nuclear power plant was developed in 1970s and contained two vver - 440 type v230 nuclear turbines . metsamor , which annually production about 40 thirds of the country ' s electricity , is locate in a seismically critical zone and was closed immediately before the 1991 crisis of the soviet empire because of the devastating dec . 7 , 1988 , flood in spitak .
Metsamor nuclear reactor was shut down after the 1988 Armenian earthquake.