The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) has issued a site licence for the Ruppur NPP to the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC). BAERA Chairman Naiyyum Choudhury said the license had been issued for 12 months from July 2016 until July 2017. The ceremony was attended by minister of science and technology of Bangladesh Yafes Osman, deputy director general for international relations at Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Nikolai Spasskiy, and deputy chairman of Russian nuclear utility Rostechnadzor Alexei Ferapontov. After pre-construction works BAEС plans to get a licence for the main construction phase, which is to start tentatively in August 2017.
The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) has issued a site licence for the Ruppur NPP to the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC). BAERA Chairman Naiyyum Choudhury said the license had been issued for 12 months from July 2016 until July 2017. The ceremony was attended by minister of science and technology of Bangladesh Yafes Osman, deputy director general for international relations at Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Nikolai Spasskiy, and deputy chairman of Russian nuclear utility Rostechnadzor Alexei Ferapontov. After pre-construction works BAE? plans to get a licence for the main construction phase, which is to start tentatively in August 2017.
Project director of Ruppur NPP Shavkat Akbar said about 80% of preparatory work had included engineering surveys, environmental monitoring, as well as setting up the construction machinery base and production of project documents, and were completed. This work is scheduled for completion in December. "The commission may submit advanced documents of the site and detailed engineering survey reports to BAERA within the next six months so that we can get the construction licence early next year," he observed. Ruppur NPP will include two Russian VVER-1200 reactors of AES-2006 design with start up planned for 2023 and 2024.
Osman said the agreement on provision of the Russian state loan for construction of Ruppur is expected to be signed in July. The general contract for construction of Ruppur was signed last December and the loan agreement was initialled at the same time. "Negotiations on the loan with Russia have been completed," the Daily Star quoted Osman as saying. "No unsolved issues are left, we plan to sign it in July." The project cost is estimated at $12.65bn, of which $10bn is the basic price and the remaining amount is additional cost and price escalation of 2.5% a year. Earlier, Osman stated that the Russian loan would cover 90% of the project cost and would be given for 28 years under LIBOR + 1.75% a year.