Staff Reporter :
The cabinet on Monday approved the draft of a law to construct the much-awaited nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Iswardi upazila of Pabna.
The proposal for “The Nuclear Power Plant Bill, 2015” has approved at a regular meeting of the cabinet held at Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Briefing reporters after meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hussain Bhuiyan said, the cabinet also okayed a proposal for formation of a company titled “The Nuclear Power Company of Bangladesh” for setting up and running the nuclear power plant.
For taking additional safety measure due to raise concerned among experts after Fukushima accident, the expense will be increased to double than the previous plan, sources said. The installation cost of Bangladesh’s first nuclear power project will double as the country wants to install the latest model of nuclear reactor to ensure safety of the plant, sources said.
Earlier, it was said Bangladesh would require around USD 1.5 to USD 3 billion to complete the job, but recently it has been estimated that around (minimum) USD 6 billion will be needed to install the project with the latest technology.
“The cost may get doubled or even more. Following the Fukushima disaster the nuclear technology is changing very fast in terms of safety and security,” a senior official of the science and technology ministry told The New Nation.
“Bangladesh wants to procure the VVER technology, which is considered to be the safest nuclear power technology with active and passive safety systems,” the project director said. This technology had been used in the recently built Kudankulum nuclear plant in India and Buhsher nuclear plant in Iran, and will be used in under-construction nuclear plants in China, Hungary, Turkey and Finland, RNPP director Sawkat Akbar said.
Earlier, Bangladesh borrowed USD 500 million from Russia to complete the technical study of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. As per the deal, Bangladesh is to repay the amount in 12 years, with a five-year grace period. The final construction cost would be repaid in 28 years, with a grace period of 15 years, according to the science and technology ministry. According to the Atomic Energy Commission, Bangladesh has to undertake 62 tests for making the 1000×2 MW nuclear power plant operational. Rosatom will design, build and operate two units of the Rooppur NPP with the VVER technology. Each unit will have an installed capacity of 1,000 MW.
