stations and 17 220 kV substations. A map of Armenia's National Electricity Transmission Grid can be found at the website of the Global Energy Network Institute here . Nuclear Armenia operates one Soviet-designed VVER-440 nuclear unit at Metsamor, which supplies over 40% of the country's energy needs. The EU and Turkey have expressed concern about the continuing operation of the plant. The Armenian energy minister has announced that a US$2 billion feasibility study of a new 1,000 MWe nuclear power plant is to be carried out in cooperation with Russia, the United States and the IAEA. Russia has agreed to build the plant in return for minority ownership of it. Furthermore, the USA has signalled its commitment to help Armenia with preliminary studies. Armenia's Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant has an installed capacity of 815 MW, though only one unit of 407.5 MW is currently in operation. Because Turkey, despite its WTO obligation, blockades Armenian borders, nuclear fuel is flown in from Russia. Used fuel is sent back to Russia. Armenia signed a cooperation agreement with the European Organization for Nuclear Research in March 1994. Since 2018, Armenia has also signed a cooperation agreement with the European Atomic Energy Community. Thermal During 2010–2017 thermal power plants (running on imported natural gas from Russia and Iran) provided about one-third of Armenia's electricity. Thermal power plants (running on natural gas) in Armenia have an established capacity of 1,756 MW. The following table lists thermal power plants which together account for 24% of Armenia's domestic electricity generation. In April 2010, a new natural gas-fired thermal power plant was inaugurated in Yerevan, making it the first major energy facility built in the country since independence. The plant will reportedly allow Armenia to considerably cut back on use of natural gas for electricity production, because officials say it will also be twice as efficient as the plant's decommissioned unit and four other Soviet-era facilities of its kind functioning in the central Armenian town of Hrazdan. With a capacity of 242 megawatts, its gas-powered turbine will be able to generate approximately one-quarter of Armenia's current (as of 2010) electricity output. The state-of-the-art plant was built in Yerevan in place of an obsolete facility with a $247 million loan provided by the Japanese government through the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC). The long-term loan was disbursed to the Armenian government on concessional terms in 2007. Armenia's energy