Bangladesh-Russia

Photo: PID

PM Hasina urges Russia's Rosatom to set up another nuclear power plant at Rooppur

The Prime Minister made this request when Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev paid a courtesy call on the PM at her official residence Ganabhaban.

After the meeting, Prime Minister's speech writer Md. Nazrul Islam said in a press briefing that Sheikh Hasina has called for the construction of a new plant at the site of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) after completing the ongoing project.

In this context, she mentioned that technical survey needs to be done at initial stage for setting up two new units.

The Prime Minister directed the concerned authorities to complete all the formalities of taking back the 'spent nuclear fuel' of the first and second units of the RNPP to the Russian Federation.

In his reply, the Rosatom Director General on behalf of the Government of Russia assured the PM to return the spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation by the first and second units of the RNPP and promised to complete all formalities for the timely return of the spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation as per the instructions of the Prime Minister.

The Government of Bangladesh and the Government of the Russian Federation have already signed an inter-state agreement on the return of RNPP's spent nuclear fuel to the Russian Federation.

Sheikh Hasina thanked Russia for energy security especially for setting up this nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

She said that establishing a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh was the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and it is being realized and he thanked Russia for that.

Rosatom Director General Alexei Likhachev briefed the Prime Minister on the progress of the RNPP and said that by 2025 the RNPP would be in production and able to add electricity to the national grid.

He also said that 85 percent of the RNPP work has been completed.

Likhachev also proposed the construction of two new nuclear power units (Unit-3 and Unit-4) in the RNPP area.

He also said that the construction of the new unit-3 and unit-4 should be started only after the construction of the first two units is completed.

In this context, Alexey Likhachev also said that the expansion of the existing nuclear power project is more profitable and reasonable from the financial point of view and in the light of technical and nuclear safety, which is considered internationally.

He said around 2,500 workers including Bangladeshis and Russians are working on this project who have acquired their skills.

At present, construction of two units of 1200 MW capacity (1200 x 2 = 2400 MW) in RNPP area is in final stage.

Physical start-up of the first unit will begin in December this year, while commercial power generation from Unit-1 and Unit-2 will begin in 2025 and 2026.