Deal on spent fuel management drafted

Bangladesh and Russia have approved the draft agreement on spent fuel management for the Rooppur nuclear power plant.

On March 15, a Russian delegation comprising Nikolay Spassky, deputy CEO of State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM and Alexey Ferapontov, deputy head of the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service of Russia (Rostekhnadzor) and their Bangladesh counterpart initialled the draft while the Russian delegation was on a two-day visit to Dhaka.

The delegation discussed various issues related to the construction of the power plant with their Bangladesh counterpart and both the sides agreed to prepare the final documents for formal signing at the earliest, said a press release.

Alexander Ignatov, Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh, also joined the sessions.

Both the sides reached a consensus following a detailed negotiation during the discussion, especially on the preparation of the intergovernmental agreement on spent fuel management for the Rooppur NPP.

The other issues discussed were schedule of events related to completion of the preparatory phase contracts and the beginning of the main phase of the construction of the power plant.

Both the sides came to a general understanding that the key task in the upcoming period will be to ensure the "first concrete” pouring at the power unit 1 of the Rooppur NPP within the stipulated time frame.

They also formed a special working group in order to ensure current cooperation involving regulators from both the countries -- Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) and ASE group of companies.

As part of the programme the Russian delegation visited the construction site of the Rooppur NPP where they joined a working meeting.

Naiyyum Choudhury, chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA); Dr Engr Md Monzurul Haque, chairman of BAEC; and representatives from ASE group of companies, the general contractor of the project; also took part in the meeting.

The preliminary results of the scheduled work for the RNPP will be presented during the meeting of the Joint Coordination Council scheduled to be held in Moscow in June- July 2017.

Rooppur's two VVER-1200 reactors will be based on a modified version of the NPP-2006 VVER, designed exclusively for the site on the eastern bank of the Padma river. The first unit of the power plant is scheduled to be commissioned in April 2018 and it would go in production in 2023.