Move to set up 1000 MW power plant within decade

BD receive offers from Russia, China, Korea for nuclear power project

The government is aggressively moving with the nuclear power plant project targeting to set up at least a 1000 MW plant in the country within a decade. Normally, it needs 8-9 years to set up a 600-1000 MW power plant in any country, as it requires fulfilling many conditions. According to official sources(The Bangladesh Today)

right now the government has three initial proposals from three countries-Russia, China and South Korea. But the Russian proposal tops the list, as the nuclear-rich country has been very keen to move ahead with the Bangladesh project under a state-to-state bilateral agreement.

As part of the move, the Russian Ambassador in Dhaka recently met with State Minister for Science and ICT Yeafesh Osman to discuss the project related issues.

As follow-up of the envoy's move, a Russian technical expert team is arriving in the country on March 29 (Sunday) and will stay here three days to discuss with the concerned authorities the proposed power plant issues.

It is believed that after the visit of the Russian technical team, a full-fledged proposal will come from the nuclear nation. Science and ICT Ministry officials hinted that Bangladesh might have to move for an unsolicited offer-based project to implement the nuclear power plant project. In that case, the present public procurement regulation (PPR) may need certain changes.

But the main problem to deal with the project will be mobilizing fund in the present perspective of global financial economic meltdown. Because, a 1000 MW nuclear power plant will need a US$ 1.2-1.5 billion investment.

The move for installing a nuclear power plant was originally initiated during the previous BNP regime. Later, the caretaker government had expedited the process and obtained a clearance certificate from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to go ahead with a nuclear power plant project.

The caretaker government also launched a site preparation project at Rooppur with technical and financial support of the IAEA to make the site suitable for a power plant. The IAEA provided US$ 366,000 for the project. Rooppur is a very old site, which was first undertaken by the then East Pakistan government for the same purpose.

"The site preparatory project is going on in full swing and by the end of the year it would be completed," said a top official of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), which has been implementing the project.

He also mentioned that an IAEA technical team also visited the site in November last to have a physical inspection before giving its necessary nod to Bangladesh.

"Simultaneously, a safeguard document and a model agreement document are now at the final stage of preparation. After completion, we've to place it to the IAEA," the BAEC official said.

Science and ICT Ministry officials said that the nuclear power plant operation is a very sensitive work and it needs highly skilled manpower.

But Bangladesh does not have such manpower available at present. So, from now on a strong move should be made to develop skilled manpower to run a future project, a senior official at the Science and ICT Ministry said.

He also mentioned that the government had approached the IAEA to provide technical support to create such trained and skilled manpower.

According to another top official of BAEC, at present world's 23 percent electricity comes from nuclear plants.

Neighboring India is leading in nuclear power generation in the South Asian region as it has 17 nuclear power plants while another five is under construction. Russia generates 17 percent of its total electricity from nuclear plants while USA generates 20 percent. France leads in nuclear power generation among the European nations.

By.
The Bangladesh Today