The government has decided to start the groundwork for the much-talked-about Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in September.
Bangladesh signed a deal with Russia on January 14 – during a visit by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – on extension of state export credit to finance the preparatory stage of the plant at Rooppur of Ishwardi upazila in Pabna.
“We are in a hurry to disburse Tk200m to start the first phase of construction of the project in September,” Yeafesh Osman, the state minister for science and technology, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The proposal to appoint the Russian consultancy firm, Atomstroyexport, at a cost of $45.90m will be placed for approval at the meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs on Sunday, he said.
Yeafesh said the ministry wanted all preparations to start the groundwork, to be completed this month, to obtain the outgoing fiscal year’s allocation within 30 days of signing the purchase of agreement.
As per the state-to-state contract proposal, Bangladesh and Russia have to disburse 10% of the funds within the stipulated 30 days of the purchase contract. The contract between the two governments was signed in 2012-13, but the fund is yet to be disbursed because of various reasons.
According to the proposal, the Bangladesh Nuclear Energy Commission (BNEC) formed a consultant team to engage in discussion with its Russian counterpart – Rosatom – about the appointment of Atomstroyexport, which will also look after the security of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
Rosatom first offered $54.43m, but later agreed on the BNEC’s recommendation of $45.90m.
Meanwhile on April 2, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the construction of the Rooppur plant involving a cost of Tk52.42bn, of which Tk40bn would be provided by Russia as state credit while the rest would come from local resources.
The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, under the science and technology ministry, will implement the project by June 2017. As per the contract, the Russian Federation will supply fuel to the plant and take away the spent nuclear fuel.
On the nuclear plant’s safety, State Minister Yeafesh Osman said the International Atomic Energy Agency would examine every stage of the plant’s construction, as Atomstroyexport would conduct 63 tests for the plant’s construction, which would have five layers of security.
He said huge floods or droughts in the country would not affect the plant’s operation.
Yeafesh said India had a total of 16 nuclear power plants operating and the present government there had planned to set up 20 more nuclear plants, a few of them near the border of Bangladesh.
“If there is any disaster, it could be from one of these plants too,” he said.
“I hope that environmentalists will not worry about Roopur Nuclear Power Plant because it will be constructed using technology which is more developed than that of the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,” he said.
Under the project plan, two units of the Rooppur plant will produce 2,000MW of electricity annually. The tenure of the plant is 60 years, which will be extended by another 20 years.