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Published : 04 May 2015, 01:04 PM
Monday’s regular meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, gave the final go-ahead to the draft Nuclear Power Plant Act 2015.
A company, Nuclear Power Company of Bangladesh, will be set up under the Act.
Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters that the government expected the plant to start production in 2021.
He said Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission will own the plant while the Nuclear Power Company will run it.
The science and technology ministry proposed the new law in order to give the matter a legal foothold, he said.
According to Bhuiyan, the law details the provision to set up the independent company, role of the government’s control to run the company and the role of Russia which is providing technology for the plant.
He said the company will have a board like others.
Its authorised capital will be Tk 10 million with 1,000 shares of Tk 100 each, he said.
The science and technology secretary will be the director and chairman of the company, the cabinet secretary said.
The other directors will include Atomic Energy Commission chairman, an additional or joint secretary from the science and technology ministry, Finance Division and the Economic Relations Division, a representative from FBCCI, Power Development Board chairman and Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Limited managing director.
Power-starved Bangladesh inked an agreement with Russia for constructing a nuclear power plant in Rooppur.
Russia will provide all assistance for setting up the plant, including providing the fuel and taking back the used fuel.
Each of the two units at Rooppur is expected to cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Bangladesh will bear 10 percent of the cost while Russia provides the rest as loan.
The plant will be in operation for 60 years but its life can be extended by another 20 years.
Hasina’s government aims to boost power production to 20,000MW by 2021.
The plant will be built with third-generation technology protected by five-layers of security.
Accidents at nuclear power plants are not uncommon. Japan is still reeling from a nuclear accident at its Fukushima plant in 2011.
Hasina, while inaugurating the plant in 2013, had said that Russian Atomic Energy Corporation would supply required energy for running the plant and take back the wastes.
“So there is no need to worry about that,” she had said.
