Residents of Rooppur in Pabna, the site for Bangladesh’s first ever nuclear power plant, are seemingly in the dark on the benefits, risks, and probable side-effects of living alongside the facility in the absence of a mass campaign on the project.
Although hopeful the plant would help curtail the country’s power shortage, many were confused about how the plant would develop.
The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) will be constructed within a kilometre of the Lalon Shaha Bridge on the River Padma. The project site falls under the Pakshi union, and the plant authority has acquired around 260 acre of land.
Md Abdul Karim, a shopkeeper at the Rooppur intersection area, told the Dhaka Tribune that he feared RNPP might cause health issues likes skin diseases for the locals, or in the case of natural calamities such as an earthquake, it might blow up altogether.
Mr Karim said the locals believed the power plant would be useful for the area and said a campaign to explain the positives and negatives of nuclear reactors would also be broadly welcomed.
Rebeka Khatun, a housewife from Rooppur, expressed her hopes for economic regeneration, saying: “A power plant like this might give job opportunities to the people of the area. We will also get better electricity supply, which will be a great thing for us.”
Md Sabuj, an HSC student, also seemed excited when the Dhaka Tribune asked if he had heard about the project: “I am waiting to see what this project will look like. Will any of our villagers work there?”
Yeafesh Osman, state minister for the ministry of science and technology, told the Dhaka Tribune that a people’s council would be formed in the project site.
“A museum would (also) be set up where the dummy equipment of the power plant will be kept so that people can get an idea about the process of setting up a nuclear power plant.”
Abu Sayeed Mohammad Feroz, Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), said nuclear power is an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective option for electricity generation.
“In this process there is no emission of carbon-dioxide, which is a major factor for global warming and climate changes. Nor does it produce any harmful chemical that causes disasters like acid rain or the depletion of the ozone layer, affecting bio-diversity. That is why this option is safe,” he said.
“From a nuclear reactor the amount of radiation released in the surroundings in 2,000 years is almost equal to the amount of radiation absorbed by a patient exposed to X-ray machine for purpose of medical diagnosis.” he said.
“The new generation nuclear reactors are more reliable and efficient than the earlier ones. New technologies have made them safer,” he claimed.
Nuclear power generation would bring a revolutionary change in the economy of the country and improve the standard of life of its people, he added.
He said presently there are 437 nuclear power plants in 31 countries around the globe from where 14% of the total electricity is produced.
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.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated groundwork of the 2,000 megawatt facility last Wednesday.
BAEC, under the science and technology ministry, will implement the project while Russian State Atomic Energy Commission (RosAtom) will build, operate and provide fuel to the plant and take its waste back to Russia regularly.
