The construction of the Rooppur project formally started on November 30 last year.(Illustration: C R Sasikumar)
India’s ambition to expand its nuclear expertise to projects beyond its borders has formally got underway with a pact being inked for Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant being built with Russian assistance.
For the proposed Rooppur project that is slated to come up on the eastern banks of the Padma River in Bangladesh’s Pabna district, about 160 kilometres from Dhaka, a “framework for interaction” has been embedded into the trilateral pact signed for the project between Russia, India and Bangladesh, wherein Indian expertise would be sought in the implementation of works related to the project, especially in the field of personnel training and consulting support. Indian companies that have gained exposure in the construction of the two Russian-built reactor at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, could also be roped in “for construction and installation works, the supply of materials and equipment of a non-critical category” for the Rooppur project, which the Russians are building in Bangladesh on a “turnkey” basis.
The pact among the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) on cooperation in the implementation of the Rooppur NPP construction project was signed in Moscow on March 1.
The construction of the Rooppur project formally started on November 30 last year.
Since it is not a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the 48-nation cartel that controls the export of fissile materials, equipment and technology globally, India cannot directly take part in the construction of nuclear power plants in other countries. It, however, has individual agreements with Bangladesh and Russia for collaborations in the nuclear sector.
The basis for the trilateral nuclear agreement is the Strategic Vision for Strengthening Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy signed between India and Russia four years ago. According to the December 2014 pact between India and Russia, the “two sides will explore opportunities for sourcing materials, equipment and services from Indian industry for the construction of the Russian-designed nuclear power plants in third countries”.
The Russians have already established a regional centre in Mumbai, which is aimed at reinforcing partnerships with Indian suppliers and coordinating the company’s proposed projects in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The Mumbai centre will specifically work on “identifying new opportunities for the development of Rosatom’s nuclear power and non-energy businesses in the South Asian region”.
The Rooppur power plant will consist of two power generation units with Russian VVER-1200 reactors, each generating 1,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Each of these new-generation reactor units is bigger in size and capacity as compared to the VVER-1000 units set up at the Kudankulam site in Tamil Nadu.
The collaboration for the Bangladesh project comes at a time when Russia has been working hard to increase its competitive edge in the nuclear plant construction market through serial production of new reactors across markets, including in India. The cooperation, officials involved in the exercise said, could be extended to the area of joint extraction of natural uranium and the production of nuclear fuel and atomic waste elimination.
Russia and India had, in 2015, agreed to actively work on projects deploying 12 additional nuclear reactors, for which, the localisation of manufacturing in India under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative and the commencement of serial construction of nuclear power plants was flagged as a joint initiative.
In this context, the Programme of Action for localisation between Rosatom and India’s DAE was finalised during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Moscow visit in 2015. At the Kudankulam site, where the two Russian-designed VVER-1000 series reactors are being installed, nearly 100 Russian companies and organisations are involved in documentation, supply of equipment and controlling construction and equipping process. This has been cited as one of the reasons for the delays, and localisation is being considered for quicker project execution at cheaper costs.
Apart from the Rooppur project, Rosatom had, in 2013, signed an agreement with Sri Lanka’s Nuclear Energy Agency for cooperation in nuclear energy that provided for assistance to Sri Lanka in the development of nuclear energy infrastructure, the creation of a nuclear research centre, uranium exploration and the training of workers.
India signed a civil nuclear cooperation deal, along with two more agreements, with Bangladesh in April 2017 under which the two sides can supply and manufacture equipment, material for the atomic power plant. After commissioning of two Rooppur units, each with a capacity of 1,200 MWs, Bangladesh will be the third South Asian country after India and Pakistan to generate electricity harnessing atomic fission.
Rosatom is the largest electricity-generating company in Russia and generated over 18 per cent of the country’s electricity in 2016. The state-owned nuclear utility has the largest portfolio of foreign construction projects — around 34 nuclear power plants in 12 countries and produces annually approximately 3,000 tonnes of uranium domestically, and some 5,000 tonnes in other countries.
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