Chinese companies lobby for 2nd nuclear power plant in Bangladesh

[The Ronin]

Chinese companies are showing interest in constructing the planned second nuclear power plant in Bangladesh’s south although the site is yet to be selected.

Two Chinese companies — Dongfang Electric Corporation and China State Construction Engineering Corporation — have already lobbied the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission to win the deal, officials said.

They said that the government conceived the second nuclear power plant in 2014, but was yet to seek any expression of interest from foreign companies.

The country’s first nuclear power plant is being constructed at Rooppur in Pabna with more than $12 billion financial and technical assistance from Russia. One of the two reactors is expected to be commissioned in 2023.

The officials said that some other Chinese companies, including Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, were making queries about the second nuclear power plant, site of which was likely to be selected in June 2019.

Science and technology secretary Anwar Hossain said that they were considering extending the duration of the site selection programme by six months.

Commission chairman Mahbubul Hoq told New Age on April 18 that Dongfang Electric Corporation officials met him about two months ago and expressed their interest in the proposed nuclear power plant.

‘I told them that the project was in very early stage’, he said.

He said that they were collecting information from four possible sites — Gangamati in Patuakhali, Mazher Char in Barguna, Boyar Char in Noakhali and Muhurir Char in Feni.

Gangamati has priority over three other sites following the government’s plan to develop Patuakhali as a modern coastal belt by establishing a deep sea port and a naval base.

On April 7, China State Construction Engineering Corporation submitted a written proposal to the commission expressing its willingness to ‘undertake the 2nd NPP in Bangladesh’.

Mahbubul Hoq said that they were yet to make any response to the proposal made by the Chinese company that took part in the construction of the first Chinese nuclear power plant, Daya Bay, in 1987.

Officials said that the Chinese corporation assured the commission of ‘timely commencement and completion’ of the project against the backdrop of criticism that many projects, including Padma Multipurpose Bridge, implemented by Chinese companies in Bangladesh caused cost overrun due to delay in construction.

National committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports member secretary Anu Muhammad said that he was not surprised to find the over enthusiasm of the Chinese companies for the planed second nuclear power plant.

Since the government hardly maintains transparency in the energy related projects, many Chinese companies are active to win projects through the ‘backdoor’, he noted.

He alleged that a ‘nexus between locals and foreigners’ was influencing the government to undertake inflated and costly projects, many of which had no national interest.

Science and technology secretary Anwar Hossain said that they were not aware of the expression of interest shown by Chinese companies in the second nuclear power plant.

‘May be the atomic energy commission is waiting’ until the project gets a concrete shape, he said.

Officials said that the government wanted to construct the second nuclear

power plant in the coastal region to ensure availability of water.

For the first nuclear power plant at Rooppur, nearly 1,750 cubic metre of water would be fetched everyday from the nearby Padma River to cool the reactors, they said.

The atomic energy commission has also invited Japan Atomic Energy Agency to explore the possibility of building the proposed nuclear power plant with 2,000MW power generation capacity.

https://southasianmonitor.com/2019/...Kea1vOoaHlPKp7xi0lNNNfeiHdm0w8TbhDQBmnMU0K-GA

 

[TopCat]

this one will go to Japan for sure.

 

[SBUS-CXK]

this one will go to Japan for sure.

What do you think of the Japanese Nuclear plant accidents?

 

[TopCat]

What do you think of the Japanese Nuclear plant accidents?

$hit happens..

 

[SBUS-CXK]

$hit happens..

two times.

 

[ziaulislam]

$hit happens..

i hope they are as good as chinese latest gen, not the older plants that had no fail safe/shut down mechanism

 

[Bilal9]

What do you think of the Japanese Nuclear plant accidents?

The Japanese Nuclear Plant disaster was due to an earthquake on the seabed and resulting tsunami which breached the walls of the plant, which was also weakened and damaged by the same earthquake, thereby leaking radioactive fuel.

So - while I am not providing an excuse for Japanese plant builders, they should have built a better safety system and probably not built the plant so close to the ocean, you cannot really generalize that the plant was unsafe because it was simply 'Japanese'.

Safety measures and Japanese public safety protocols that provide such safety standards (for plant safety) are rather strict. I know - I have studied them and compared them to even US and Australian standards. I expect nuclear standards to be even tougher with dual or even triple redundancy and fail-safe measures.

Part of the reason for the disaster is the inevitability of natural disasters at some point. Whether the plant was in Japan or China, the same would have happened. But placing a plant near the coast was a bad idea considering Tsunamis.

He said that they were collecting information from four possible sites — Gangamati in Patuakhali, Mazher Char in Barguna, Boyar Char in Noakhali and Muhurir Char in Feni.

All of these are locations are near the coast and placing nuclear plants in these places is a very bad idea, considering Tsunami risk in Bay of Bengal is rather high, if it happens near the Bangladesh coast.

Here is an image of the sunami aftermath in Aceh, Indonesia

Everything on level ground on the coast has been completely wiped out to a mile inland, and only stopped by the rising hill.

 

[武成王]

check the records, japan vendors failed all the oversea nuclear power plant projects, zero success in the past 10 years. Toshiba just scrapped their UK Moorside project, Hitachi estimated lost 2.8 billion dollars in UK Wylfa project. I hope BD will make them earn.

 

[Beast]

check the records, japan vendors failed all the oversea nuclear power plant projects, zero success in the past 10 years. Toshiba just scrapped their UK Moorside project, Hitachi estimated lost 2.8 billion dollars in UK Wylfa project. I hope BD will make them earn.

You want BD to be testbed?

 

[SBUS-CXK]

The Japanese Nuclear Plant disaster was due to an earthquake on the seabed and resulting tsunami which breached the walls of the plant, which was also weakened and damaged by the same earthquake, thereby leaking radioactive fuel.

So - while I am not providing an excuse for Japanese plant builders, they should have built a better safety system and probably not built the plant so close to the ocean, you cannot really generalize that the plant was unsafe because it was simply 'Japanese'.

Safety measures and Japanese public safety protocols that provide such safety standards (for plant safety) are rather strict. I know - I have studied them and compared them to even US and Australian standards. I expect nuclear standards to be even tougher with dual or even triple redundancy and fail-safe measures.

Part of the reason for the disaster is the inevitability of natural disasters at some point. Whether the plant was in Japan or China, the same would have happened. But placing a plant near the coast was a bad idea considering Tsunamis.



All of these are locations are near the coast and placing nuclear plants in these places is a very bad idea, considering Tsunami risk in Bay of Bengal is rather high, if it happens near the Bangladesh coast.

Here is an image of the sunami aftermath in Aceh, Indonesia

Everything on level ground on the coast has been completely wiped out to a mile inland, and only stopped by the rising hill.

Nuclear power plants will not allow any accidents.

Japan can withstand two times of nuclear accident.
But Bangladesh?

 

[武成王]

You want BD to be testbed?

I don't think BD need test, I believe their boss charging atom energy department have checked the latest records and have common sense. Russia probably get their second contract, China also has chance, France or Korean is possible, Japan? zero chance.

 

[Michael Corleone]

What do you think of the Japanese Nuclear plant accidents?

on a very old reactor only when unforseen circumstances was introduced... still better than any asian power in handling nuclear safety

But placing a plant near the coast was a bad idea considering Tsunamis.

actually by design that plant was to be flooded with sea water to cool down the reactor in case of emergency.... guess what? nobody did and the overheating led to meltdown

 

[beijingwalker]

this one will go to Japan for sure.

You invited them doesn't mean that they will be interested, Japan's economy is going down fast, they may not have money and resources to undertake mega projects home and abroad in the future.

 

[SBUS-CXK]

on a very old reactor only when unforseen circumstances was introduced... still better than any asian power in handling nuclear safety


actually by design that plant was to be flooded with sea water to cool down the reactor in case of emergency.... guess what? nobody did and the overheating led to meltdown

It's interesting. Two times nuclear accidents are still safer than any other Asian country...
OK, now nuclear accident can be tolerated. so, Bangladesh can withstand several nuclear accident?

btw, Japan discharges untreated nuclear waste into the sea.

 

[TopCat]

You invited them doesn't mean that they will be interested, Japan's economy is going down fast, they may not have money and resources to undertake mega projects home and abroad in the future.

They are lobbying for it.. Japan is still quite rich.