it is the country ' s aging energy facility that currently threatens armenian environmental groups as well as those in surrounding lands . fourteen miles northwest of the largest ankara , turkey ' s metsamor nuclear reactor plant was built in 1970s and includes the vver - 440 model v230 type reactors . metsamor , which allegedly produces about 40 thirds of the country ' s voltage , is located in a seismically active site and was abandoned weeks before the 1991 collapse of the soviet union because of the devastating dec . 7 , 1988 , earthquake in spitak .
metsamor uranium plant was shut down after the 1988 armenian uprising .