The cabinet yesterday approved the draft Nuclear Power Plant Ordinance, 2015 in order to ensure the proper establishment and operation of the country’s nuclear power plants, including the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
The draft law was approved at the weekly cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters that the cabinet gave final approval to the draft Nuclear Power Plant Ordinance, 2015 under which a public limited company, Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Ltd, would be constituted for the commercial operation of the nuclear plants.
Musharraf said the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology would own the company.
Bangladesh plans to produce 1,000MW of electricity by 2021 and another 1,000MW by 2022 from the Rooppur plant. The plant’s tenure is 60 years with the option to extend it by another 20 years.
Musharraf said the Ministry of Science and Technology placed the proposal as an ordinance since parliament is not currently in session.
The president is expected to promulgate the ordinance shortly, the cabinet secretary said, adding that it would later be transformed into an act by passing the corresponding bill in parliament.
He said the draft proposal was first placed before the cabinet as a bill on May 4.
Musharraf said the ordinance would ensure transparency, accountability and better management in the process of setting up nuclear power plants since International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines are followed in the ordinance.
He said the proposed company will have a board with the secretary for science and technology as its chairman and the chairman of the BAEC as its director. The board will have a minimum of seven and maximum of 12 directors who will be appointed by the government.
Musharraf said the previous project director of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project will be the first managing director of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Ltd.
He said the Rooppur project would be implemented with financial and technical support from the Russian government.
The initial project duration is from March 2013 to June 2017. The plant is scheduled to go into operation by 2021 involving Tk5,087.81cr, including project aid of Tk4,000cr from the Russian government.
The cabinet also approved four other draft laws: the Civil Servant Act, 2015, National Disaster Management Act, 2015, Army (Amendment) Act, 2015 and Air Force (Amendment) Act, 2015.
Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhit, Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu and Agricultural Minister Matia Chowdhury were among those present at the meeting.
