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Rooppur Nuke Power Plant

Dhaka eyes soft loan

High-level team to visit Russia this month

M Abul Kalam Azad
A high-level government delegation will visit Moscow this month to seek a Russian soft loan for setting up a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna.
The team led by State Minister for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman is also expected to sign a crucial deal on nuclear radiation safety, officials at science and Technology Ministry said.
Under the pact, the nuclear state will extend full support to form a radiation control authority in Bangladesh that would control all kinds of probable hazards.
Russia will finance the country's first-ever atomic power plant estimated at betweenTk 1,200 crore and Tk 1,500 crore, Yeafesh told The Daily Star on Monday.
“At a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on January 25, we have discussed the probable modalities for receiving the Russian fund," he added.
Senior officials of the finance ministry and Economic Relations Division attended the meeting, chaired by prime minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman.
“We will propose several financing options including a soft loan equivalent to 85 per cent of the total project costs to Russia,” mentioned the minister. The Bangladesh government will bear the rest of the cost.
The other alternatives include a publicprivate partnership (PPP) and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) with Russia. Bangladesh will ask Russia to run the power plant in the initial years to enable a local workforce develop its skills and take over the operations.
Meanwhile, a three-member team ofRussian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom arrived in Dhaka on Sunday to see the Rooppur site and discuss the project with Bangladeshi experts.
Bangladesh so far has made significant progress in meeting the requirements specified by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for building the unit to solve the country's energy crisis, according to sources at science and technology ministry.
Several deals, framework agreements and memorandums of understanding (Moll) have already been struck with Russia for peaceful use of nuclear power, technology transfer, grooming local human resource, supplying the required fuel and takingthespentfuelback.
Enacting a law and forming an independent regulatory body to operate the plant is at the final stage.
The law ministry is now vetting the draft of Bangladesh atomic energy regulatory act, mentioned Yeafesh adding, the draft will be placed in the ongoing parliamentsession.
The five-member regulatory body will be formed with experts afterenactingthelaw.
Secretary of science and technology ministry, chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, project director of Rooppur Nuclear Power Project and a senior official of the foreign ministry will accompany Yeafesh to Russia. They are scheduled to leave Dhaka on February 24.
A total of 292 acres of land had been acquired—260 acres for the plant and 32 acres for its offices and staff residences - - in Ishwardi upazila of Pabna after the then government in 1961 had decided to set up the plant.
Necessary equipment had also been on the way, but the ship carrying those did not come to Chittagong port. Instead, it went to Karachi and the project had been shelved.