Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant: Current Status & Significance
Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant of Bangladesh, currently under construction. The plant with 2.4GW capacity is located in Pabna district of Bangladesh on bank of Padma river. The plant has two units (1200MW each) and first unit is expected to commence operation in 2023. Bangladesh is constructing this plant under financial and technical support from Russia. With this, Bangladesh will become third country in South Asia to have civil nuclear facility.
India’s Role
In April 2017, India and Bangladesh had signed a number of pacts including a deal on civil nuclear cooperation. The cooperation between the two countries on nuclear power included setting up power units to addressing safety issues. As per this agreement, the two countries can supply and manufacture equipment and material for nuclear power.
Significance
With the role envisaged, Rooppur power plant would be counted as India’s first atomic energy venture abroad. This is as per the India Russia ‘Strategic Vision for Strengthening Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy’ signed in 2014 which said that the two sides would explore opportunities for sourcing materials, equipment and services from Indian industry for the construction of the Russian- designed nuclear power plants in third countries.
Current Status
On November 30, 2017, the first pouring of concrete at Rooppur has happened, marking launch of construction. Since India’s role is mainly as per its agreement with Russia, it is currently limited to “training of personnel and consultancy” in the initial phase. For this phase, all equipment will be provided by the Russians. Howewver, India would seek to go beyond this and India’s representative has announced in 61st general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Vienna that India will supply and manufacture equipment, material also for the plant. Currently, the Bangladeshi nuclear scientists are undergoing training at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, which was also built with Russian assistance and uses Russian nuclear technology.
The view expressed by experts is that any such project in which bilateral or multilateral interests on nuclear energy are involved, India should ensure that it is strong enough to survive the changes in governments. This is very important for a partnership of this nature to sustain, grow and flourish.
