As 2019 starts, authorities in Bangladesh have presented in Vienna this week their progress towards nuclear power at a Technical Meeting on Topical Issues in the Development of Nuclear Power Infrastructure, with more than one hundred participants from 40 IAEA Member States.
This country of 160 million plans to produce 9% of its electricity from nuclear power and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by the middle of the next decade when both reactors of the new power plant will have gone into operation.
“By 2040 we estimate that Bangladesh will need to generate about 78 000 megawatt of electricity in a high-demand scenario and about 69 000 in a low one, and nuclear power will play a significant role,” said Mohammad Shawkat Akbar, Project Director of the nuclear power plant construction project.
The construction project is being implemented by a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM. It is high on the Bangladeshi government’s agenda, all the way up to the Prime Minister’s office.
Bangladesh is expected to be one of the countries to suffer the most from climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) anticipates that sea level rise from climate change is expected to subsume a large portion of its coastal land by 2080.
Since Bangladesh expressed interest in embarking on a nuclear power programme, the IAEA has been assisting the country through its technical cooperation programme and Peaceful Uses Initiative. This support includes assistance with reviewing nuclear laws, preparing for adhering to international legal instruments, developing and reviewing regulations, assessing sites and developing a radioactive waste management system.
The IAEA will continue to support the country in the areas of safety, regulatory framework, management, human resource development, security, safeguards and emergency planning. This is what participants agreed during a consultancy meeting held in Vienna last month between IAEA and Bangladeshi officials to review progress made and plan further support in 2019-2021.
“Our assistance to embarking countries is small but strategic,” said John Haddad, a nuclear engineer at the IAEA. “We provide capacity building through scientific visits, fellowships, and training courses; we provide guidance, documents, review missions and offer a platform for them to share experiences.”
Original source: IAEA
Published on 31 January 2019
