Bangladesh and Russia Sign Cooperation Agreement on Nuclear Power
Bangladesh has signed an agreement with Russia on civilian nuclear deal for Moscow’s aid in establishing the premier nuke power plant in the nation.Russia will aid in the establishment of nuclear energy infrastructure in Bangladesh. Science and ICT Ministry secretary Nazmul Huda Khan and deputy director general of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) NN Spasskiy signed the agreement recently for building up of a nuclear power plant in Ruppur. According to the current plan, entered after the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) green signal in 2007 for establishment of nuke power plants, two 1000 megawatt nuclear units will be established at an estimated price of $200 million which are anticipated to be functional by 2015.
Officials said that the deal would make possible for Bangladesh to launch agreements to establish more nuclear power plants.
A high-powered Bangladesh delegation, administered by State Minister for Science and ICT Yafesh Osman is probably to visit Moscow next month to look into the deal.
Declining reserve of natural gas, which now causes 90 percent of electricity generated in the nation is a reason of worry for the newly elected Sheikh Hasina’s government.
In 2005 total electricity generated in nuclear power plants in Russia was 137 billion kWh, 16% of all generation. Installed capacity of Russian nuclear reactors stood at 21,244 MW.
The Russian energy strategy of 2003 set a policy priority for reduction in natural gas based power supply, aiming to achieve this through a doubling of nuclear power generation by 2020. In 2006 the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) announced targets for future nuclear power generation; providing 23% of electricity needs by 2020 and 25% by 2030.
Russia has made plans to increase the number of reactors in operation from 31 to 59, partially financed with loans from the European Union. Old reactors will be maintained and upgraded, including RBMK units similar to the reactors at Chernobyl. China and Russia agreed on further cooperation in the construction of nuclear power stations in October 2005.
The Russian government plans to allocate 127 billion rubles ($5.42 billion) to a federal program dedicated to the next generation of nuclear energy technology. About 1 trillion rubles ($42.7 billion) is to be allocated from the federal budget to nuclear power and industry development before 2015.
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