UNB, Moscow :The 2400-megawatt Rooppur nuclear power plant (RNPP) is going to be a very modern project as additionalmeasures have been taken on safety grounds making it sustainable against any possible powerful earthquake and Tsunami, claims a Russian expert.”I can say, it’s a very modern project,” Semchenkov Yuriy, Chief of Kurchatov Nuclear Technology Complex (Kurchatov Institute), told UNB responding to a query.He said, additional measures have been taken in designing reactors, while ’emergency responding areas’ are unlikely to exceed 3 kilometers in case of severe accident, which means there’ll be no impact beyond three kilometers of the pant due to any accident.Deputy Director for the Research, National Research Centre- Kurchatov Institute-Prof Yaroslav I Shtrombakh was also present at the press interaction with over 30 journalists from various countries.At present, Kurchatov Institute is one of the leading research institutes in the world. It is a model of a future research centre as an interdisciplinary national laboratory, a prototype of a new approach to realise scientific and technological global challenges of the 21st century.Responding to another UNB question, Cewevvu said the surviving time, in case of the loss of energy, was 6 hours to 24 hours. “But it’ll be 72 hours for the project in Bangladesh to stay operational.”Asked about the reactors to be used in Rooppur nuclear power project, the expert said there has been some improvement in every new innovation.He also said Russia’s latest third generation water-water-energetic reactor VVER-1200 will have 60 years’ lifetime. “May be we won’t remain alive for the next 60 years but our successors will be there.”Though the cost of a power project like this cannot be specified before the entire project design is complete, it is assumed that the cost may go up to $10 billion.The entire project design is scheduled to be done by the end of the year. Russian state-run nuclear company Rosatom is the deplorer of the project. Earlier, Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander A Nikolaev also mentioned that the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is safe for Bangladesh saying those are opposing its construction have a wrong perception.
