Rooppur NPP: Draft deal on spent nuke fuel management approved

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

Both the sides signed on March 15 agreed to prepare the final documents for formal signing at the earliest, said a press release.

A Russian delegation comprising of 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) was on a two-day visit to Dhaka from March 15 to discuss various issues related to Rooppur NPP construction with their Bangladesh counterpart.

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

Preparation of the intergovernmental agreement on spent fuel management for the Rooppur NPP was the central issue of the discussion. After a detailed negotiation, both the sides reached a consensus on the issue.

The other issues which were discussed are schedule of events related to completion of the preparatory phase contracts and the beginning of the main phase of the Rooppur NPP construction.

Both the sides came to a general understanding that the key task in the upcoming period is to ensure the "first concrete” pouring at the power unit 1 of the Rooppur NPP within the stipulated time frame. A special working group has been formed 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 program Russian delegation visited the Rooppur NPP construction site and joined a working meeting. Naiyyum Choudhury, Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA), Dr Engr Md Monzurul Haque, Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) and representatives of 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.