All confusion on spent fuel issue removed, claims Minister

Russia will take back the much-talked about 'spent fuel' from the proposed Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant as per the Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) between the two countries, Minister for Science and Technology Yeafes Osman told the Daily Observer on Sunday.
"There is no confusion about 'taking back spent fuel' by Russia, both the countries are committed to uphold the IGA," the Minister said.
Yeafes returned home from Moscow on Sunday after discussing the issue with ROSATOM, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation, assigned to install the Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna District.
As per the discussion between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in 2010, the spent fuel will be taken back to Russia and the recycling will be done there. Russia will supply necessary fuel for the reactors during its life-term (60 years) and take back the spent fuel.
 Bangladesh is going to build a nuclear power plant, using Uranium 235 as the reactor fuel at the proposed plant. However, the waste products of Uranium can become dangerous and fatal.
"To defuse all confusion arising about the spent fuel we discussed the matter with ROSATOM, I sat with the president and vice-president of Russian nuclear energy corporation, ROSATOM, and we agreed to uphold the IGA," the Minister said.
"We will sign a separate deal in this regard, however, in connection with this line, experts and officials of both the countries will conduct series of meetings before that," the Minister said.
Yeafes Osman told this correspondent on his return from a week-long visit to Russia.
According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangladesh signed the deal with Russia as Russia is the lone country which agreed to take back the spent fuel. It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh signed five Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France, USA, and China but signed the deal with Russia on the ground that they had agreed to take back the spent fuel.
Earlier, Russia agreed to remove the spent fuel of the reactors and take back the highly radioactive rods once they have completed their 'life-cycle' to their country safely from the proposed Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. Now they want to sign an agreement on 'importing spent fuel from Bangladesh,' according to sources in the Ministry of Science and Technology.
"We will fix the modality of this agreement and the carrying cost of spent fuel will be discussed there," a senior official of BAEC said.
This shifting position of Moscow will increase the cost of the proposed Rooppur nuclear power project, which is a US $ 13 billion plus project, according to the sources in the Science and Technology Ministry.
The Science and Technology Ministry apprised the ROSATOM about the Bangladesh's intention to sign a MoU with Russian and India for smooth implementation of the RNPP.  The Ministry for Science and Technology has convened an inter-ministerial meeting on November 6 to finalise the draft titled, India-Russia-Bangladesh cooperation MoU for successful implementation of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project.
As per the MoU, India intends to provide all kinds of cooperation, including the security of this project through a tripartite agreement with Bangladesh and Russia.
According to sources, Russia has given Bangladesh a draft of the tripartite MoU in September and Bangladesh is also reviewing the draft taking it positively.
Through this MoU, India will take over the operational control of RNPP and engage their experienced scientists here to develop human resources to run the RNPP as Bangladesh has no experience in this regard, a senior official said.