AT a time when many advanced countries including Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain are scaling back and phasing-out nuclear power production and banning new nuclear energy plants in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of Rooppur nuclear power plant on October!.

The plant will be built with Russian technical and financial assistance. The prime minister and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the S 2 billion agreement in Moscow in January 2013 to build and operate two nuclear power reactors of 1,000 MW each.

Yet, over two dozen eminent Bangladeshi scientists, academics and nuclear experts at home and abroad, in their writings in Bangladesh newspapers, sounded alarm bells and voiced concerns about safety and the devastating consequences of an accident in the plant in a densely populated country like Bangladesh. They pointed out potential problems in radioactive waste management, transport, and storage facilities in the country, and expressed concern about the danger of environmental damage because of radiation contamination of air, soil and water in the event of an accident in the reactor.

I am no scientist, let alone a nuclear expert. But I have read with deep apprehension those concerns and deem it my moral responsibility as a concerned citizen to recount the warnings of the scientists in order for the authorities to be able to review the decision.

A nuclear power plant is complex, sophisticated and high-tech. Bangladesh does not have skilled manpower and technical expertise to efficiently operate the plant and chances of accidents are extremely high. All the major nuclear power plant accidents in the past - 3-Mile Island in Harrisburg, America in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 - were caused by faults in operation and mismanagement, and not necessarily because of earthquake or tsunami.

Bangladesh, which cannot efficiently manage solid waste of the city and does not have the capacity to manage factory safety and building construction in the garment industry, should think many times before undertaking such a high-risk venture. The existing gas-based power plants are regularly tripping due to faulty

operation.

Nuclear power plants are normally built in remote, sparsely populated areas. Bangladesh is a densely populated country. Authorised discharge of solid liquid and gas will expose the surrounding area of Rooppur to high doses of radiation. Any accident will engulf the people in the vicinity with radioactive fallout which will affect the entire population of the country and beyond, causing cancer, miscarriage, birth deformity and

impaired nervous system. Large swaths of arable land will be contaminated.

Fukushima disaster displaced 150,000 households after radiation leaked into air, soil and water. Thousands died and many more were maimed in the Chernobyl disaster. The economic cost of clean up, evacuation and medical treatment is estimated to be more than $ 100 billion. The Chernobyl accident seems to have put the nail on the coffin of

nuclear power in

Europe. The decision to go for nuclear energy plant in Bangladesh is beyond comprehension.

A nuclear power plant needs steady availability of water for cooling the reactor. Because of recession of the Padma river from the site of the plant, particularly during dry season, water flow will be a matter of serious concern. Bangladesh does not have the capacity or the sophisticated storage facility to dispose-off radioactive nuclear waste. The geological structure of Rooppur is woefully inadequate to store the nuclear waste, which cannot be dumped anywhere outside Bangladesh. Russia will take care of spent fuel only and there is no agreement about nuclear waste management and transport. This is a matter of grave concern.

There is no infrastructural facility in Bangladesh for industrial production of materials needed for the plant, and we will have to depend on Russia for supply of such materials. Besides, the Russian WER-1000 reactor is an outdated, unsafe and discarded model susceptible to accidents.

Political unrest and upheaval, and militants engaging in violence, together with poor security and

enforcement apparatus, could be

threats for the plant.

These are matters of deep concern indeed. They just cannot be wished away. The prime minister's anxiety to redress the critical energy deficit of 5,000 MW against the current demand of 7,500 MW, which causes serious setback to economic development, is well understood.

But people question the compulsion of the government to rush to the

decision without public hearing and popular consensus on the issue, which are really crucial. The economic gains from the plant at the expense of threat to life of people needed to have been seriously discussed and debated.

The decision to go for a nuclear plant should be reviewed in favour of other renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and biomass. There is no denying that much of energy shortfall is due to waste, mismanagement and theft - popularly known as 'system loss.' The existing power plants should be renovated and repaired.

We are already being slowly poisoned by adulterated food, air pollution and contaminated water. We can very well do without a nuclear power plant for prosperity. As The Daily Star columnist Mohammad Badrul Ahsan so eloquently said in his article on Rampal power plant on Friday last: “But one less project cannot be a disaster for this country when immediate illumination threatens to leave long term future in thedark."Thequotation could not be more relevant to the issue.

The writer is a contributor to the The Daily Star.