Stop Rooppur
Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP)
28 May 2012
The saga of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) had been going
on for over five decades now. When Field Marshal Md. Ayub Khan, the then
president of Pakistan, had declared in 1960 that a nuclear power plant
would be built in Rooppur, Pabna,
he deliberately created a white elephant in the then East Pakistani
soil to shut out the clamour for democracy and equality between the East
and West wings. The whole project was conceived out of political intrigues
and it is even today in Bangladesh cloaked in political manipulation with
little or no technical and financial considerations. Various Bangladeshi
governments had on numerous occasions tried to revive the project, but
after some deliberations discarded it as highly unworkable. Now the
present government wants to go through the project without considerations
of financial, technical and safety issues. Only consideration that is
given is the political gain the present government will have from the
froth of having nuclear power plant in
Bangladesh.
The present Bangladeshi government’s claim that by setting up
this nuclear power plant, the acute energy shortage can be met is totally
misconceived. Various Ministers and Advisors as well as top Bangladesh
Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) officials had been claiming that within 6
to 8 years the plant will be up and running. This is in sharp contrast
with the time scale of nuclear power generation in any country of the
world. In an advanced country like Britain, with all the essential
ingredients like finance, industrial infrastructure, technical expertise,
skilled workforce, suitable site etc as well as regulatory and
institutional framework readily available, it takes about 15 years or so
to build a plant and get it running. How on earth a country like
Bangladesh with none of the above mentioned items available can build a
plant in half the time scale of the Western
world?
Let us now examine the financial aspect of the RNPP. It is
claimed by both the Chairman and the Director of the BAEC in charge of
this project that to build this plant of 1000 MWe (which
implies 3,500 MWth) output by the Russians will cost about
$2,000 million. This claim is again in contrast with the statement of the
Minister for Science and ICT and head of the technical committee who
stated that the proposed nuclear plant of 1000 MWth output will
cost $2,000 million. The Minister’s assertion is in keeping with the
present day construction cost; whereas BAEC’s assertion is about 70% below
market level. Are not the BAEC officials hyping up the project by
fictitious claims for their own selfish interests – job security,
opportunity for foreign trips etc?
Notwithstanding these baseless assertions, let us examine the
whole of this RNNP project holistically. There are a number of critical
questions which need to be answered
affirmatively.
·
Can RNPP meet the country’s energy need in the
immediate future?
The
answer is definitely NO. As stated above, it takes at least 15 years in an
advanced country to go through the process of selection of the type of
reactor for the plant, safety assessment, site selection, construction,
commissioning and then start of the operation. In Bangladesh where the
most essential ingredient of technical expertise is totally absent and the
institutional and regulatory framework is lacking, the process may take
well over 15 years - more like 20 to 25 years, if successive governments
earnestly pursue the nuclear policy. A nuclear power plant can form the
energy strategy over a longer time scale, but it is definitely not a short
term energy fix.
·
Is nuclear power the most cost effective source
of energy?
The
answer is again emphatic NO. No matter what the BAEC officials may claim
(with zilch experience), it can be categorically said that nuclear energy
has never been cost effective anywhere in the world when compared to other
forms of energy such as coal, gas, oil etc. It is even more so when the
cost of decommissioning and radioactive waste management are added to the
construction and operation costs. The decommissioning and waste management
costs are roughly equal to the initial construction cost. However, the
BAEC officials claim that once the plant is operational, it will keep
running generating electricity for the next 50 to 60 years! Such claims only reinforce the
stupidity and sheer ignorance of the claimants. The fact is that every 12
to 18 months the plant is shut down for a period of two to three months
for maintenance and refuelling, when defueling and refuelling are carried
out, components and equipment are checked and replaced. Without such
safety checks, the plant may well develop accident
conditions.
·
Does Bangladesh have the skill base required for
nuclear power generation?
The
answer is NO. Hardly any university in Bangladesh teaches reactor
physics/reactor chemistry/thermal hydraulics etc. In addition, there are
requirements for expertise in geology, hydro-geology, seismology,
electrical and mechanical engineering, metallurgy, shielding, radiation
protection etc as well as project management. Bangladesh education system
should gear up to address these skill gaps now, so that in few years time
there would be at least students with knowledge on these
subjects.
·
Is Rooppur a suitable site for a nuclear power
plant?
The
answer is NO. Most of the nuclear power plants are at coastal areas or
very close to large sources of water. The reason is that nuclear power
plants (whether PWR or BWR or gas-cooled etc) require large quantities of
water to cool secondary or tertiary coolants. For example, Sizewell ‘B’
nuclear power plant of 3425 MWth output requires over 3 million
litres of sea water every minute during operation and shutdown condition
(until cold shutdown). If that amount of coolant becomes unavailable, a
scenario like Fukushima may well develop. The tributary of Padma river
which runs by Rooppur may not deliver that quantity of coolant during the
lean summer months.
Another
factor that is vital for nuclear power plant location is its remoteness
from human population. Every plant needs to discharge some amount of
radioactive waste in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. If there are human
habitation nearby, then they will be exposed to such discharges and suffer
adverse effects such as cancer, genetic disorder etc. There are large
population sites within 5 to 10 mile radius from Rooppur and they are
likely to be affected.
·
Has there been any safety analysis or
environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out for the
RNNP?
The
answer is again NO. These techniques are unknown to Bangladeshi ‘experts’.
Without such full blown analysis the levels of risk and their mitigation
measures cannot be estimated. The first few years (between four to six
years or even more) of project time is taken up by the safety analysis
work. But before then the type of reactor, its desired output etc need to
be specified. Bangladesh has not even taken this first step, but still
claims that within six to eight years RNPP can be
operational!
It can be
seen from above considerations that Bangladesh fails to meet all of the
crucial points. So why then Bangladesh government is keen to go ahead with
this project?
The main
benefit for the government is political. The government can flash it
around that under this government a nuclear power plant is going to be set
up and that is a major achievement. Already political leaders and BAEC
officials are hyping it up by claiming that Bangladesh is on the verge of
technological breakthrough.
The other
advantage is financial for the individuals involved in this project.
Already the Ministers, top civil servants, BAEC officials have made a
number of official tours to Moscow, IAEA Vienna and other capitals over
the last two and half years, supposedly pursuing this project. But hardly
any concrete progress can be seen to have been made. The type of reactor
has not been chosen, the power output has not been decided and the cost is
unknown. The skill gap which is the first issue to be addressed remains
unaddressed.
The whole
saga of nuclear power in Bangladesh is ludicrous. A country which is
locked in, after more than 40 years of independence as the Least Developed
Country (LDC) in UN jargon, is thinking of embarking on a project which
rich, developed countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Japan etc are
shying away. On balance, these countries consider that the risk of nuclear
power plant is too high to be acceptable and definitely not commensurate
with the benefit it accrues. But Bangladesh rushes ahead
regardless.
Is it not
a case of FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO
TREAD?
Dr. A Rahman
MSRP CRadP FNucI; author of the book ‘Decommissioning and Radioactive
Waste Management’. E-mail: anisur.rahman1@btinternet.com