Russia is to extend a $11.4bn loan to Bangladesh to spend on the Rooppur nuclear power plant. A draft agreement between the two states was published on the government’s website, according to the Tass news agency.
The loan will be drawn down between March 2017 and 2024, and repaid over 20 years.
The 2.4GW Rooppur nuclear plant, which was first proposed 56 years ago, will be Bangladesh’s first. It will have two VVER-1200 pressurised water reactors, the latest iteration of one of Rosatom’s main export designs. Â
Rosatom signed a turnkey contract to build the power station in December 2015, and completion is scheduled for 2022 and 2023.
The cost of the plant is estimated to be $12.7bn. Russian engineers will run it during its first year, after which it will be handed over to Bangladeshi personnel. Russian will also supply the nuclear fuel and reprocess it when it is spent.
Elsewhere, the European Commission has dropped legal action against Hungary over the way it procured its Pak II nuclear power plant from Russia. The government had awarded the scheme to Rosatom without putting out a tender.
Hungary had argued that only the VVER-1200 reactors were suitable for the $10.8bn scheme, so a public tender was not required under EU competition law.
Image: The Rooppur plant has become a national project (Shah Cement)
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