The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Energy Advisor Tapan Chowdhury on Sunday said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has assured of its full support to Bangladesh for seting up a nuclear power plant The Advisor, who atended the 51st General Conference of the IAEA from September 17 to 21 in Vienna, Austria, briefed reporters about his trip and its outcome.

He said he had a successful meeting with IAEA Director General Mohamed El Baradei who assured him of providing full technical support to Bangladesh plan for seting up the nuclear power plant Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Shafiqul Islam Bhuiyan and other top officials of IAEA were present at the meeting. He said Bangladesh, as a follow-up of the meeting, would now submit a comprehensive plan to the IAEA by October 15 this year to install the 600-1000MW nuclear power plant

"In response, a high profile IAEA team, headed by its Deputy Director General, will arrive in Bangladesh between November and December to evaluate the safety and security issues," Tapan Chowdhury said. He said the IAEA chief wanted to know how serious Bangladesh is about seting up a nuclear power plant "We told him that we're serious because we're looking for alternative sources of energy next to our gas and coal resources."

Replying to a question, the Energy Advisor said delegations from neighbouring India, Pakistan, China and Russia also atended the IAEA General Conference and all these countries had offered technical cooperation to Bangladesh's plan.

"During our bilateral discussions, response from all these countries were very positive… Actually, we're very much excited to have such a positive response from the neighbours… their atitude was very positive," the Advisor said.

"India, Pakistan, China and Russia all are willing to provide technical support to our plan to set up the nuclear power plant," he added.

The Atomic Energy Commission Chairman said Bangladesh could set up the proposed 600MW nuclear power plant by 2015 if its plan is approved by the IAEA and it would require US$ 1.2 billion of investment

Bangladesh has a pre-independence plan to set up a nuclear power plant in Ruppur, Ishwardi and also conducted a feasibility study for three possible sites for such a power plant

But, no nuclear plant has so far been installed.

However, the government now has become serious about the project and a high-profile delegation visited South Korea last month to discuss development of a nuclear power plant