Funding at nuclear power plant

BD finalizes deal with Russia

DHAKA: The government has finalized to sign a deal with Russia for funding in the project of setting up a 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna district.

As per the deal, Russia will provide $ 500 million loan to Bangladesh for research of technical development of the power plant but the interest rate of the debt has not been finalized still.

Economic Affairs Department (ERD) Senior Secretary Iqbal Mahmud told banglanews: “There are few more initial works before starting the construction of the nuclear plant.”

He said, “The main work will take more years to start and before that we have to build 2,000 nuclear specialists.”
Besides, a delegation team will be visiting Bangladesh from Russia.

According to ERD source, around 50 crore dollar loan deal was signed for the 2,000-megawatt nuclear power plant but more fund will be needed for establishing the plant and its being estimated that five more years will be needed after the vocational research.

The construction work of the first ever nuclear power plant of the country will be started in between the end of the current year and beginning of the next year.

On March 29, the government approved the draft of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Control Act-2012 keeping the provisions of form separate regulatory and operational bodies   for the country’s nuclear power plant at Rooppur.
On November 1 in 2011, Bangladesh signed a landmark deal with Russia finalizing all arrangements for installing country’s first-ever nuclear power plant (NPP) to produce 2,000-megawatt electricity in Rooppur area.

The deal comes nearly two years after Dhaka signed a crucial framework agreement with Moscow on Russian cooperation for the country’s maiden nuclear plant at its Rooppur site by 2017-18 at a cost of $1.5 to 2 billion.

The International Atomic Energy Association allowed Bangladesh to install nuclear power plants in 2007 along with seven other developing nations while Russia, France, South Korea, China and Pakistan expressed their interest in offering their assistance for developing the infrastructure.

Only around 40 percent of Bangladeshis currently have access to electricity while the country now witnesses a deficit of 1,000 to 1,500MW power.

BDST: 2225 HRS, AUG 11, 2012
Edited by: Tilka Binte Mehtab, Newsroom Editor/ M. Mahbub Alam, Asst Output Editor