The World - News from March 19, 1989

The Soviet Union shut down Armenia’s only nuclear power plant because of an outcry over its safety sparked by last December’s earthquake, the official Tass news agency said. The 13-year-old plant, 24 miles from the Armenian capital of Yerevan, is the first operating nuclear station to be decommissioned in the Soviet Union. The plant, built in the heart of a major earthquake zone, had been expected to operate 30 years. It was designed to withstand earthquakes measuring up to a magnitude of 9.0. The government has insisted the plant suffered no serious damage in the Dec. 7 temblor that registered a magnitude of 6.9. The quake leveled several towns in Armenia and left 25,000 people dead.