Construction of the nuke plant starts in 2016
The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) will sign a third deal with the Russian company Atomstroyexport on the preparatory stage work of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant by this April.
“We wanted to sign the deal in December but it was delayed because of violent political situation at that time,” Project Director Mohammad Shawkat Akbar told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
All primary work of the physical construction and inevitable construction facilities of the plant would be ensured under the deal, he said.
A pit foundation would also be built as preparation for setting up the plant’s reactor unit, he added.
The construction of the first 1,000MW unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is expected to begin in 2016.
The pre-construction work of the country’s largest power plant with a capacity of 2,000MW – feasibility evaluation, environment impact assessment, engineering survey and acquiring site licence – would be completed by November this year, Shawkat said.
The BAEC is implementing the project under the science and technology ministry.
“Work on the project has been underway smoothly. We are very much on the target regarding completion of all activities in time,” he told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“As per our plan, the construction of the first unit will be completed by 2021 and the second by 2022. The tenure of the plant will be 60 years with options to extend it by another 20 years,” he said.
“We will also complete technical documentations, first priority design, working documentations and engineering survey for the design stage by June 2016. We hope to get the construction licence by June 2016,” he said.
Bangladesh signed a deal with Russia in January last year during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Moscow for the extension of state export credit to finance the preparatory stage work at the nuclear power plant.
The first deal worth $45.9m was struck with Atomstroyexport on June 27 last year. The amount would be spent on the pre-construction work at the site. On October 2, the government penned the second deal worth $265m for the preparatory stage work, including the development of design documentation, first priority working documentation and engineering survey for the design stage.
The $45.9m and $265m were parts of a total $500m loan which Russia agreed to provide to finance the ground work by Atomstroyexport, which will run a series of 63 tests as part of the pre-construction work.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
