Bangladesh Submits Plan to IAEA to Set up Nuclear Power Plant

Dhaka, Bangladesh | September 26, 2007 by D-8 Secretariat

Bangladesh will submit a comprehensive plan to the IAEA by October 15 this year to install a 600-1000MW nuclear power plant at a cost of $ 1.2 billion, reported Energy Portal Information of Bangladesh, EnergyBangla.

A high-profile IAEA team, headed by its Deputy Director General, will arrive here between November and December to evaluate the safety and security issues concerning the proposed plant,” Energy Advisor Tapan Chowdhury told reporters here Sunday.

He said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has assured of its full support to set up a nuclear power plant in the country.

Tapan, who attended the 51st General Conference of IAEA from September 17-21 in Vienna, said he had a successful meeting with IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei who assured him of providing full technical support to Bangladesh plan for setting up the nuclear power plant.

He said the IAEA chief wanted to know how serious Bangladesh is about setting up a nuclear power plant. “We told him that we’re serious because we’re looking for alternative sources of energy next to our gas and coal resources.”

Replying to a question, the Energy Advisor said delegations from neighboring India, Pakistan, China and Russia also attended the IAEA General Conference and all these countries had offered technical cooperation to the Bangladesh’s plan.

“During our bilateral discussions, responses from all these countries were very positive. Actually, we’re very much excited to have such a positive response from the neighbors. their attitudes were very positive,” the Advisor said.

Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan said they could set up the proposed 600MW nuclear power plant by 2015 if its plan is approved by the IAEA and it would require US$ 1.2 billion of investment.

Bangladesh has a pre-independence plan to set up a nuclear power plant in Ruppur in northern Bangladesh and also conducted a feasibility study for three possible sites for such a power plant.

But, no nuclear plant has so far been installed.

However, the government now has become serious about the project and a high-profile delegation visited South Korea last month to discuss development of a nuclear power plant.

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