Bangla: IAEA approval to set up nuclear power plant

Dhaka, June 25: Bangladesh, along with seven other countries, has got the much-desired approval of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to set up nuclear reactors for power generation.

An IAEA delegation was in Dhaka to discuss different nuclear issues with Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) officials.

The other countries getting the approval for setting up nuclear reactor included Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco and some small countries in central Asia.

Power and Energy advisor Tapan Chowdhury told reporters that the present caretaker government initiated various moves to resolve the worst crisis of the country's nagging power problem with only 3,200 mw of generation against its demand for over 5,000 mw.

Mr Chowdhury did not give details of IAEA approval nor Bangladesh's plan to set up the high-cost and sophisticated technology based power plant.

Official sources said BAEC, instructed by the government, was considering revival of an old plan to set up a nuclear power plant.

Initially, the proposed nuclear power plant might be of 600 mw capacity and would be set up at Ruppur in northern district of Pabna where about 260 acres of land was acquired before the country's independence 1971, a BAEC official said.

Meanwhile, a high-powered delegation would visit South Korea next month to attend a conference of the IAEA and discuss the matter with a Korean power company which offered Bangladesh to invest in nuclear power plant project.

As part of the government move to resolve the persisting power crisis, the advisor said, a high-powered delegation would visit Myanmar to discuss the prospect of setting up a hydropower plant there and thus adding electricity to the national grid.

''We are considering all kinds of possible options to resolve the power crisis,'' Chowdhury said after a meeting at Power Ministry.

About the move for setting up hydropower plant in Myanmer, he said any move to set up a hydropower plant in Myanmar, would take 5-6 years to come into operation.

UNI