No political dispute over Rooppur

Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander A Nikolaev yesterday said all major political parties in Bangladesh have broadly accepted the idea that the energy crisis in the country can greatly be solved through nuclear power generation.
In an oblique reference to the BNP, he said a few weeks after the January 5 polls, a prominent standing committee member of a party had conveyed the thought that the party leadership would fulfill all the obligations and agreements which had been concluded between the two countries in recent years.
"I think the idea of solving the energy problem of Bangladesh is broadly accepted and broadly recognised by all major political stakeholders," he said during his interaction with diplomatic correspondents at the Jatiya Press Club.
About the safety aspects of the Rooppur nuclear power plant, he said the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission had demonstrated its greatest level of caution about the safety features.
Issues such as ecological, radiation and geological impacts must be explored and assessed before making the final design of the plant, he added.
The envoy also said the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Rooppur was safe for Bangladesh as its design would be absolutely sustainable and resistant to earthquake, tsunami, floods and even air strikes.
Expressing displeasure over the comments of those opposing the construction of the NPP, he said they took such factors into account owing to what had happened to Fukushima in Japan.
"The design of the NPP, which is under construction, is much more sustainable than Fukushima. But it is useless to say five times more safety or one hundred times safety… The design is absolutely sustainable to tsunami, to earthquake …," he added.
Responding to a question about the German ambassador's remark on the NPP, the Russian envoy said, "I must admit that I was not happy to read the report on such a statement made by one of my colleagues."
On March 16, German Ambassador Dr Albrecht Conze expressed concern over the government's recent decisions to construct a coal-fired power plant not far from the Sundarbans and a nuclear power plant near Pabna.
Nikolaev also supported Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent statement on setting up another NPP in the country's southern region.
On the issue of transparency and quality of the Rooppur NPP, he said, "There's no hiding, no secrecy, nothing."