Rooppur NPP work won’t face any distraction: Rosatom

There will be no problem in implementation of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh, state-owned Russian Rosatom clarified in a statement on Tuesday.

“No disruption is foreseen in any of the commitments and work schedules in the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant,” said Rosatom.

They have issued the clarification as some media outlets were asking Rosatom’s public relations firm, Triune Group, for information about the fate of the power plant after the emergence and consequence of Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Western countries, including the US, Europe, Canada and Britain imposed massive sanctions on Russia for its attack on Ukraine on Thursday. Major Russian banks and energy and oil companies are on the sanction list.

Bangladesh and Russia agreed to cooperate in the field of peaceful use of atomic energy on May 21, 2010.

Later, the government passed the Bangladesh Nuclear Power Plant Act, 2015 in the National Parliament on September 16, 2015. Nuclear Power Company of Bangladesh established as the operating Organization of Rooppur NPP.

On December 25, 2015, JSC Atomstroyexport, which is a Russian engineering company of state-owned Rosatom, on construction of nuclear power facilities abroad, and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission signed a general contract for the construction of Rooppur NPP consisting of two power units, each 1200 MW.

On July 26, 2016, the Russian and the Bangladeshi parties signed in Moscow an intergovernmental agreement on extension of a state credit in the amount of $11.38 billion for the financing of the main stage of Rooppur NPP construction.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the “Construction of Rooppur NPP” on December 6, 2016 with an estimated cost of Tk 1,13,093 crore.

The commissioning of power unit 1 is planned in 2022, and power unit 2 in 2023.