Rosatom će graditi prvu bangladešku nuklearnu elektranu

Office Rosatom signed the contract with Bangladesh commission for atomic energy for design Rooppur nuclear power plant, first of that kind in the country marked with the lack of electricity.

The conclusion is planned till 2020, andRussiaalso can insure up to 10 milliard dollars for construction of power plants.

Only half ofterritoryofBangladesh, which has population of 150 million, it has access to electricity. Mostly leaning on natural gas for production of electricity, existing producing objects are not capable to fulfil the demands.

Bangladeshsaw huge production capacity of nuclear sources which are enough for 50 years.

ChinaandSouth Koreaoffered earlier financial and technical support for construction of nuclear power plant in country, butRussiais the one which finally got green light  for job.

The ice is broken in January whenBangladeshprime minister Sheikh Hasin met with president Vladimir Putin inMoscow. International agreement was signed in order to insure 500 million dollars of Russian loan for financing of research engineering, design and training of staff for future Rooppur power plant, while on one more loan of around 1,5 milliard dollars and for financing of construction will be talk about.

Russia inherited good relations with Bangladesh from Soviet Union, which supported independence of country, from Pakistan in year 1971.

Rosatom also proved as successful exporter of nuclear technology, working inChina,India,TurkeyandCzechRepublic.

Rooppur object will be constructed on east coast of river Padma,160 kmnorth westfrom capitalDhaka.

It will be equipped with two nuclear reactors with combined production of 2.000 mega watt. Plan is to start generating energy at the beginning of 2020.

Even though total expenses of project are still not defined, price can be around 10 milliard dollars.

Russiacan pay the bill at the end, by paying in the form of loan at inter state preferential terms. This kind of loan is proved for construction of Byelorussia’s nuclear electricity.

Giving the loan for construction of nuclear plants abroad is usual practise, said Alyon Yakovlev, the head of Russian Nuclear Energy Society, on long terms, as in other countries, money should be returned.

ButBangladesh’s bloggers  and medias expressed concern due to influence of this project on environment.

According to reports, river Padma will not be in possibility to insure sufficient water supplies  for cooling of reactor, which can cause the accidents. However, there are not experts inBangladeshfor this advanced and potentially dangerous object.

“Rosatom will not only construct units, but also offer help and train experts inBangladesh, what is a part of job “key in hands”. In that way the security shouldn’t be problem”, said Ilya Platonov, head of Nuclear.ru.

However, experts can be trained during the construction, and Rosatom can additionally follow its work in first years after the starting of plant.

The same as for water supply- signing of contract was preceded by study of the feasibility of the site and research on possible influence of project on environment.