After long delays, Bangladesh is at last making intense preparations to bring its first nuclear power plant into production. Built at a cost of $13 billion, the 2.4-gigawatt Rooppur project promises major relief from the country’s long-standing power shortage, though it has raised fears and worries among people living right beside it. When the two reactors of the huge plant on the bank of the Padma are in full operation, it will be able to supply more than 10% of the country’s total demand.
It will play a very important part for Bangladesh, which has been hit by an energy crisis because of the conflict in the Middle East. Md Zahedul Hasan, managing director of the state-owned Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh, said the first reactor at the plant, 150km west of Dhaka, is scheduled to start by the end of this year and the second unit will go into production within a year after that.
At present Bangladesh’s power sector depends heavily on fossil fuels, natural gas in particular. The rest of the demand is met from coal, oil and renewable energy.
Alongside the vast works at Rooppur, carried out with the help of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, a piece of “Russian settlement” has grown up. With thousands of Russian engineers and workers living there year after year, the face of rural Rooppur has changed completely. Russian has found a place on shop signboards beside Bangla and English, and restaurants serve traditional Russian borscht alongside local food. Local young people make a living from small businesses there and mix with the Russian workers.
Project officials say the strictest safety measures of international standard have been put in place, drawing on the lessons of past nuclear accidents.
But fear of such a sensitive project in a densely populated area has not left some local people. Md Yunus Ali, an 80-year-old retired mill worker who lives only 15 minutes’ walk from the plant, said that when a compressor was tested with a deafening noise some time ago, even sleeping children woke in fright. At the end of his life he no longer fears for himself, he said, but he worries about the future safety of his children and grandchildren.
The dream of a nuclear plant at Rooppur is an old one, older even than the country’s independence. Planning began in the 1960s. After independence there were rounds of talks with France, Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea, but no deal saw the light of day. Finally, in 2015, Bangladesh signed a final agreement with Moscow, with Russia lending about 90% of the main cost.
After construction began in 2017 the project was delayed several times. The pandemic, and then the international sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine war, badly disrupted the supply of construction equipment and the payment process. Allegations of corruption around the project against ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and members of her family have also been discussed in the international media, though they have always denied them.
Amid the fears and political controversy, what ordinary people want most is uninterrupted electricity. Beli Begum, a 55-year-old farmer who struggles to irrigate her land because of frequent load-shedding, said she wants the Rooppur plant to start quickly so that people get its benefit. With the plant right beside her home, she hopes that this time at least they will have uninterrupted power 24 hours a day.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report