Nuclear power plant: A pragmatic answer to power crisis
Saturday, 8 December 2007
Syed Fattahul Alim
POWER is the key to everything about modern way of living, from running the engine of economic growth down to doing the household chores. The indispensability of power can be best understood from the pitiable condition our life is thrown into when it goes off even for a few minutes. Though the rural life in some remote parts of the country may still be possible without power, urban and semi-urban life cannot. At the moment, the existing power generation units lack the capacity to meet the present demand for electricity in the country. What worries most is the demand for power is increasing by leaps and bounds, though the production of the same is not. How is one then to bridge the ever-widening gap between its steep rise in demand disproportionately matched by a stagnant state of supply? It is not that one can improve the situation by installing a number of high capacity generation units overnight. That is not possible for two reasons. Firstly, it takes a lot of time to install a new power station. Secondly, the fuel necessary to generate power is neither cheap, nor is it available in abundance in the country. The reserve of gas is depleting fast, while extraction of the existing coal deposits is another time-consuming affair. Coal has another problem; it is very unclean as well as a politically sensitive issue in our particular context. So, it will be very difficult for the economy to cope with the emerging situation, unless urgent steps are taken to increase power generation capacity in the country multiple-fold. To be frank, to describe the situation as one of difficulty is an understatement. Understandably, any short-term policy to resolve the acute power crisis is not going to deliver in our particular situation. For with the growth of population and expansion of the economy any such policy will lose its significance and in that case the power policies will have to be knocked up every three to five years. It is neither a sensible nor an affordable prescription for a poor economy like ours. What is the way out? What options are we then left with in absence of sufficient deposits of fossil fuel to fire power production units? Hydropower, too, is also not a viable alternative for Bangladesh. Nowadays one often hears of renewable sources of power from solar energy, wind and similar other natural sources of energy. But so far, the available technology is not efficient enough to ensure supply of power on a massive scale and in a sustainable fashion.
What preparations are there at the highest policy level to meet the future requirements of over a long period of time? If the nation is not to fail but prosper, those at the helm must put their heads together to find a solution to the looming crisis once and for all. Nuclear power is a well-known source of energy that is inexhaustible and enduring. Since first splitting of atom in the early part of the last century, a possibility has presented itself before humanity to solve its energy problem for all time. However, the danger of proliferating destructive nuclear devices, safety issues and politics and last but not least easy availability of fossil fuel came in the way of harnessing the full potential of nuclear energy to solve the problem of power permanently. However, with rising price of oil and its reserves depleting fast, there has been a change in the outlook of the policymakers in the advanced world. Nuclear power is now getting more serious attention as a source of electricity.
Bangladesh, however, is not a stranger to the idea of producing electricity from nuclear power. Long in the past, an attempt was taken in the 1960s by the then Pakistan government to set up a power plant fuelled by nuclear energy at Ruppur in Pabna. The idea never materialised. Now time has come to think about the nuclear option for electricity seriously. The good news is that the incumbent government has already taken some steps in this direction.
The energy adviser recently attended the 51st General Conference of the Geneva-based international nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). After his return home he informed the press that the head of Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei had assured him of providing assistance to Bangladesh for setting up a nuclear power plant. On this score, a high powered IAEA team is scheduled to visit Dhaka this month to assess safeguard and security issues relating to installation of such a project in the country. In this connection, an IAEA delegation had also visited earlier in June to fix the user's criteria for setting up a nuclear power plant at Ruppur in Pabna.
But installing a nuclear power plant is a very big deal. The cost of such a project is forbidding and the time needed for the construction of a nuclear power plant is also rather long.
Installation of a 600 MW nuclear power plant, for example, costs over one billion US dollar. And then there is also a host of complex issues involved such as choosing the right technology for the purpose. What kind of nuclear reactor will suit our particular condition, where to dump the radioactive wastes from the reactors and so on are to mention but a few. The head of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission said that the government wants to build a nuclear power plant with a capacity between 600 and 1000 megawatts. The source of obtaining a reactor for the purpose has already been suggested. Russia is learnt to have agreed to provide the technological support as well as other technical assistance in this respect. The South Korean government, on the other hand, has demonstrated its interest in bearing the 60 per cent cost of such a project.
The present idea of establishing a nuclear power plant has not dropped in just out of the blue. In the past when the idea of setting up a nuclear power plant was first conceived, it was a fashionable as well as romantic idea. But in the present context, the idea has shed all its romantic trappings. It has now become a very pragmatic piece of thinking. The government should not waste anymore time to proceed in earnest to set up a nuclear power plant at the site where some infrastructure for the purpose was built about half a century ago.
POWER is the key to everything about modern way of living, from running the engine of economic growth down to doing the household chores. The indispensability of power can be best understood from the pitiable condition our life is thrown into when it goes off even for a few minutes. Though the rural life in some remote parts of the country may still be possible without power, urban and semi-urban life cannot. At the moment, the existing power generation units lack the capacity to meet the present demand for electricity in the country. What worries most is the demand for power is increasing by leaps and bounds, though the production of the same is not. How is one then to bridge the ever-widening gap between its steep rise in demand disproportionately matched by a stagnant state of supply? It is not that one can improve the situation by installing a number of high capacity generation units overnight. That is not possible for two reasons. Firstly, it takes a lot of time to install a new power station. Secondly, the fuel necessary to generate power is neither cheap, nor is it available in abundance in the country. The reserve of gas is depleting fast, while extraction of the existing coal deposits is another time-consuming affair. Coal has another problem; it is very unclean as well as a politically sensitive issue in our particular context. So, it will be very difficult for the economy to cope with the emerging situation, unless urgent steps are taken to increase power generation capacity in the country multiple-fold. To be frank, to describe the situation as one of difficulty is an understatement. Understandably, any short-term policy to resolve the acute power crisis is not going to deliver in our particular situation. For with the growth of population and expansion of the economy any such policy will lose its significance and in that case the power policies will have to be knocked up every three to five years. It is neither a sensible nor an affordable prescription for a poor economy like ours. What is the way out? What options are we then left with in absence of sufficient deposits of fossil fuel to fire power production units? Hydropower, too, is also not a viable alternative for Bangladesh. Nowadays one often hears of renewable sources of power from solar energy, wind and similar other natural sources of energy. But so far, the available technology is not efficient enough to ensure supply of power on a massive scale and in a sustainable fashion.
What preparations are there at the highest policy level to meet the future requirements of over a long period of time? If the nation is not to fail but prosper, those at the helm must put their heads together to find a solution to the looming crisis once and for all. Nuclear power is a well-known source of energy that is inexhaustible and enduring. Since first splitting of atom in the early part of the last century, a possibility has presented itself before humanity to solve its energy problem for all time. However, the danger of proliferating destructive nuclear devices, safety issues and politics and last but not least easy availability of fossil fuel came in the way of harnessing the full potential of nuclear energy to solve the problem of power permanently. However, with rising price of oil and its reserves depleting fast, there has been a change in the outlook of the policymakers in the advanced world. Nuclear power is now getting more serious attention as a source of electricity.
Bangladesh, however, is not a stranger to the idea of producing electricity from nuclear power. Long in the past, an attempt was taken in the 1960s by the then Pakistan government to set up a power plant fuelled by nuclear energy at Ruppur in Pabna. The idea never materialised. Now time has come to think about the nuclear option for electricity seriously. The good news is that the incumbent government has already taken some steps in this direction.
The energy adviser recently attended the 51st General Conference of the Geneva-based international nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). After his return home he informed the press that the head of Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei had assured him of providing assistance to Bangladesh for setting up a nuclear power plant. On this score, a high powered IAEA team is scheduled to visit Dhaka this month to assess safeguard and security issues relating to installation of such a project in the country. In this connection, an IAEA delegation had also visited earlier in June to fix the user's criteria for setting up a nuclear power plant at Ruppur in Pabna.
But installing a nuclear power plant is a very big deal. The cost of such a project is forbidding and the time needed for the construction of a nuclear power plant is also rather long.
Installation of a 600 MW nuclear power plant, for example, costs over one billion US dollar. And then there is also a host of complex issues involved such as choosing the right technology for the purpose. What kind of nuclear reactor will suit our particular condition, where to dump the radioactive wastes from the reactors and so on are to mention but a few. The head of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission said that the government wants to build a nuclear power plant with a capacity between 600 and 1000 megawatts. The source of obtaining a reactor for the purpose has already been suggested. Russia is learnt to have agreed to provide the technological support as well as other technical assistance in this respect. The South Korean government, on the other hand, has demonstrated its interest in bearing the 60 per cent cost of such a project.
The present idea of establishing a nuclear power plant has not dropped in just out of the blue. In the past when the idea of setting up a nuclear power plant was first conceived, it was a fashionable as well as romantic idea. But in the present context, the idea has shed all its romantic trappings. It has now become a very pragmatic piece of thinking. The government should not waste anymore time to proceed in earnest to set up a nuclear power plant at the site where some infrastructure for the purpose was built about half a century ago.