The waste depot will be built in three stages, starting in 2007, and cost about 10 million euros (12.6 million dollars), according to the Armenian energy minister, Armen Movsissian.

The first waste storage site, built in 2000 by the French company Framatome, is full.

Armenia has rejected calls from the European Union to close its only nuclear power plant, which supplies 40 percent of the country's energy needs.

The Metsamor plant built in 1977 had to be shut down in 1988 when an earthquake devastated Armenia. The plant was reopened in 1995.

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