Dhaka submits nuclear power plant proposal to IAEA next month

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FE Report
Bangladesh will submit a comprehensive proposal to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by the middle of next month for installation of a nuclear power plant in the country.
A high-profile team from the IAEA, the global nuclear watchdog, will arrive in Dhaka by December next to see the safety and security aspects with regard to the installation of such nuclear power generation unit in Bangladesh, the Power Adviser Tapan Chowdhury said Sunday.
The IAEA team's proposed visit also aims to ascertain ways to help Bangladesh set up the nuclear power plant, the Power Adviser Tapan Chowdhury told newsmen at his Secretariat office.
The adviser recently attended an international conference of the IAEA in Vienna, where he discussed the Bangladesh's initiative to the leaders of the Agency.
The IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradi has assured Bangladesh of the Agency necessary supports for building a nuclear power plant, Tapan noted.
Bangladesh had earlier got the approval from the IAEA for setting up a nuclear power and there is an offer from South Korea to bear 60 percent cost of such project, the Power Adviser disclosed recently through the media.
However, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) Chairman Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan informed the newsmen that the government had plans to install a nuclear power plant with a generation capacity between 600 and 1000 MW.
"We are expecting to implement the proposed nuclear power plant by the year 2015," he said.
The installation of a 600-MW nuclear power plant could cost about US$ 1.2 billion, the BAEC chairman added.
The government had earlier initiated the move to install a nuclear power generation plant in order to cope with the country's growing demand for electricity.
Under the initiative, the present interim government has already sought Russian assistance to build a nuclear power plant in the country, an official source said recently.
And, Russia has expressed its willingness to extend possible supports to Bangladesh in this connection, the source said.