By Mizan Rahman

Dhaka

The Russian ambassador to Bangladesh yesterday said that Moscow is now looking forward to building more nuclear power plants for Bangladesh as it envisages another such reactor for southern coastlines of the country, months after breaking the ground for the maiden one to be commissioned with Russian technology.

“Moscow looks forward to building more such plants if Dhaka proposes some in future,” Russian Ambassador Alexander Nikolaev told diplomatic correspondents in Dhaka.

He said major political parties, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), have ‘broadly accepted’ the nuclear power plant being built by Russia in northwestern Rooppur of Pabna.

The envoy’s comments at the DCAB Talks came a week after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government envisaged another nuclear plant to provide electricity to isolated islands in the southern coastline.

“We had to take the decision of installing the (Rooppur) plant overcoming many obstacles including the feuds among international quarters or powerful countries in the world,” she told a meeting with the science and technology ministry officials.

The premier added: “We now have to take preparations to set up another such plant in the coastal southern region having many islands.”

Bangladesh on September 2 laid the foundation stone for its first ever nuclear power plant in line with a deal signed with Moscow, nearly 50 years after a project was initiated to augment electricity generation installing nuclear reactors at the site.

The plant is expected to be completed in next five years to provide 10% of the country’s total power under an ‘energy roadmap’ aiming to increase power production to 20,000 megawatts (MW) by 2021.

Officials said the Rooppur plant would be built with ‘third generation technology’ protected by five layers of security in line with directives of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), which gave its green signal for the project in 2007.

The ambassador yesterday also sharply ruled out security concerns, reiterating the soundness of the safety standard of the plant, saying it would be ‘many times safer’ than the one at Japan’s Fukushima and could sustain both earthquakes and air strikes.

He particularly referred to the concerns raised by German ambassador in Dhaka Albrecht Conze last month and called the fellow envoy’s comment ‘provocative’ and led by
‘commercial jealousy’.

Bangladesh signed an initial deal with Russian state-owned nuclear agency Rosatom in November 2011 to build a nuclear plant with two 1,000MW reactors at a cost of up to $2bn each in view of its present reserves of natural gas.

During Sheikh Hasina’s Moscow visit in January this year, the two countries signed an agreement under which Russia is to provide a separate $500mn loan to Bangladesh to help build the plant.

Under the agreements, the Russian nuclear agency would install the plant to produce 2,000MW electricity providing all assistance in setting up two nuclear units with a
capacity of 1000MW each.

Russia will provide necessary nuclear fuel for the plants on a long-term basis and it would take back the spent fuel of the plants under the agreement and also train up human resources at different levels to run the project.

Russia’s joint stock company Atomstroyexport would perform its responsibilities as a contractor, while the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission would carry out its responsibilities as a customer.

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 to offer their assistance for
developing the infrastructure.

Officials earlier said the major part of the cost would be provided through domestic funds and the rest of the amount will come from the builder or international donors as soft loan.

Bangladesh recently formulated a vision plan as part of its desperate efforts to augment electricity amid growing demands, and power supply is estimated to cost around two per cent of GDP growth each year, according to a study of the World Bank.

Bangladesh’s foreign policy has of late dramatically tilted to Russia after the former signed the nuclear plant deal. Dhaka directly supported Moscow on sensitive issues in the United Nations and other
international forums.