Bangladesh eyes full Russian financial support for nuke plants

Bangladesh will pursue full financial support from Russia, besides technical and technological assistance, to set up two nuclear power plants.

“We will try to obtain a soft loan from Russia for our proposed plants,” Yeafes Osman, Bangladesh’s state minister for science and information technology, told about the possible financing mechanism for the planned atomic plants to be set up at Rooppur.

Dhaka has already prepared a draft of a broader deal in consultation with Moscow for implementation of the power plants to help ease the country’s energy crisis, officials said.

Setting up of the plants may cost as much as 2 billion US dollars.An official hinted that Bangladesh would finance a portion of the total cost in case of failure to obtain international assistance for the project’s implementation.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will sign the umbrella agreement with her Russian counterpart during her planned visit to Moscow sometime in January 2012, foreign ministry officials said.

Signing of the broader agreement is aimed at starting the construction of the 1,000 megawatt peaceful nuclear project by the middle of next year and finishing it within the next five years. This was disclosed at an inter-ministerial meeting on the prime minister’s possible trip to Russia. The meeting decided to keep the general agreement a secret before its signing by the two top leaders.

If the project starts following the plan, it will go into electricity generation by the middle of 2017, three years after the tenure of the present Awami League-led government.

“We hope to sign a deal on setting up of the nuclear power plants during the prime minister’s upcoming Moscow visit,” said Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.

“Many deals will be signed under the broader agreement, including operation and safety of the plants,” she said, adding that Hasina might visit Russia in January.

They said the project may cost over US $2 billion, a portion of which will be met by Dhaka while Moscow will provide rest of the money as soft loan, according to the meeting’s working paper accessed.

“Under the broader deal, two most crucial contracts—General Contract and Financial Contract—will be inked during the prime minister’s visit,” a senior foreign ministry official told.

He said under the general agreement, Bangladesh and Russia will form a body called Nuclear Radiation Regulatory Authority, to ensure safety of the plants. The official said the regulatory body will be formed as the international guidelines do not permit Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission to be in charge of the nuclear power project.According to the proposed deal, Russia’s atomic agency Rosatom will provide training to Bangladeshi experts to build their capacity in nuclear project management.

The meeting sources said, the Russian nuclear agency will take the hazardous nuclear wastes to their territory for safe disposal as Dhaka has expressed its inability to dump the nuclear wastes in Bangladesh having higher density of population.