Eight years after the idea was conceived by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to build a nuclear plant for generating power to meet the country's growing demand, she on Thursday inaugurated the construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) near Iswardi in northern Pabna district.
With this Bangladesh's long cherished dream to become an elite member of the 'Nuclear Club' with non-nuke purpose has come true. Bangladesh can now boast of achieving the capability of using nuclear technologies for power generation.
For over 60 years we had a dream of building our own NPP. Though it was mooted in 1961 the Pakistani rulers did not implement it as a part of their policy of exploitation and discrimination of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). After the liberation of Bangladesh the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman evoked the dream of RNPP but it remained unimportant to the successive regimes after the killing of Bangabandhu. It is again the daughter of the Father of the Nation who rekindled the long cherished dream when Sheikh Hasina came to power for the second term in 2009.
Designed by the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, the RNPP will be implemented by Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. The first unit of the project with 1200 MW capacity will be ready for commission in 2023 and the second unit with same capacity in 2024.
This is part of a Bangladesh master plan to generate 24,000 MW by 2021, another 40,000 MW in 2030 and 60,000 MW in the year 2041.
Bangladesh plans to meet its 70 percent power requirements through generating power using natural gas and coal as raw materials and the rest 30 percent with nuclear technologies, hydropower generation, renewables and power imports from neighbouring countries.
The RNPP, a milestone in the country's power sector,
has been a spectacular development in power generation efforts of the government which has already moved steadily during PM Sheikh Hasina's rule over the past eight years. The construction of the RNPP involves a variety of mainstream and supplementary works that takes long years but the timeline is not much given the enormity of the work and the ultimate benefits the nation expects to derive from this.
One of the main features of RNPP is that it will ensure nuclear security infrastructure considering 100 years of plausible threats. From the beginning Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself has been guiding and monitoring the RNPP as the Chairman of the National Committee formed to implement the coveted project.
Bangladesh had been suffering from nagging power shortage with the drive for industrialisaion getting pace but this sector was neglected by the BNP-Jamaat government after Sheikh Hasina's first spell as Prime Minister ended in 2001. However, her Awami League government made it a priority when it came back to power in 2009 and pressed it harder in her second consecutive tenure since 2014.
The incumbent government has pledged to overcome the country's power shortage by using all possible means - natural gas, coal, rental power and the nuclear power. Also it is moving ahead with the other landmark project, the Rampal Power Plant near the Sundarbans, defying protests and objections by several environmental groups. However, the majority people of Bangladesh are with the government in its relentless bid to make the country self sufficient in power and also save some to meet additional needs.
The Power System Master Plan (PSMP) 2016 aims to ensure supply of electricity to all citizens and economic sectors at affordable costs at all times through a well-balanced power generation environment that maximizes the respective advantages of different types of power generation methods.
Nuclear power is considered as the base load energy and nuclear power plants (NPPs) are capable of generating low cost electricity and meeting the society's demand for dependable and affordable electricity, one experts feel.
Nuclear power projects are the growth engine for the region where they are being constructed and they are valuable long-term national assets which support sustainable economy.
All said and done, we are still haunted by the endemic hidden enemy in this crucial power sector (in both generation and distribution phases).
For decades corruption and system loss have been endemic in the country's power sector. There had been attempts and assurances to improve the system but it remained incorrigible adding people's financial burden and forcing the consumers to pay the price for corruption and system loss.
We, therefore, hope that corruption, irregularities and negligence by people involved in implementing and running of the RNPP and likely losses would be guarded off from the beginning and the government would ensure that people really get some relief from footing unusually high electricity rates when it is going down in the global market.
