Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to inaugurate groundwork at the 2,000 megawatt (MW) the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) in Pabna on October 2.
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given her consent to inaugurate the project in the first week of October,” Science and Technology Ministry Secretary Md Rafiqul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune Sunday.
He said 2,000MW electricity will be added to the national grid once the project goes operational in 2020.
“The government is working towards implementing the project with highest importance given to public safety,” he said.
Bangladesh signed a deal with Russia in this regard on January 14 this year, during the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Moscow on extension of state export credit to finance the preparatory stage of the nuclear power plant.
The government has appointed Russian consultancy firm Atomstroyexport to supervise and monitor the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant at a cost of $45.90m.
The Russian firm will run a series of 63 tests and as part of pre-construction works it will conduct feasibility evaluation (FE), environment impact assessment (EIA) and several other assessments and surveys.
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.
Bangladesh plans to produce 1,000MW of electricity by June 2017 and another 1,000MW by 2022 from the RNPP. The tenure of the plant would be 60 years, with options to extend it by another 20 years. In November 2011, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding and framework agreement.
Russian State Atomic Energy Commission (Rosatom) will build, operate and provide fuel to the plant and take its waste back to Russia regularly. The total cost of the proposed plant has been estimated between $1.5bn and $2bn.
