Bangladesh gears up to enter the global nuclear club, courtesy Russia

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday poured the first concrete to mark the beginning of construction of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, the South Asian country’s first which when completed would make it the thirty-third country in the world having nuclear power.

“The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will employ the latest VVER-1200 (Water Water Energetic Reactor) technology, which is an improvement over VVER-1000 technology used in India’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project,” Dr Olga Momot, a nuclear scientist working with Russia’s government nuclear agency, Rosatom, told reporters at the Russian embassy in New Delhi.

Dr Momot said that the VVER-1200 technology was economically more viable and had enhanced safety features compared to VVER-1000. Besides Bangladesh, Russia is building VVER-1200 technology equipped nuclear plants for Belarus and Finland. The world’s first VVER-1200 equipped nuclear plant, Novovoronezh II-1 in western Russia, began operation in February this year.

She informed reporters that India had been wanting a trilateral partnership with Russia and Bangladesh to service the Rooppur reactor, which is expected to start operations in 2024. “The negotiations on a trilateral agreement are still on,” the Russian scientist added.

When questioned if the Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu could be upgraded to incorporate VVER-1200 technology, Dr Momot replied that the two technologies were incompatible with each other.

“But Kudankulam is fitted with advanced safety features after the Indian government requested them post-Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011,” she said.

“The Russian-built VVER reactors already have an impeccable safety track record. The installed active and passive safety features, including the core melt catcher, mean that Kudankulam can withstand calamitous events like a tsunami,” Dr Momot added.

Out of the six units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Reactor that were originally proposed in 1988, two are already functioning, while work on Unit 3 and 4 is ongoing.

Officials at the Russian embassy said that India was now in talks with Rosatom to acquire VVER-1200 technology, which would be installed at six proposed nuclear plants in the country.

“The locations of these upcoming plants haven’t been finalised yet, though,” officials added.

Fifty-seven of VVER nuclear plants are in operation globally at the moment, with 42 more under construction.