Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is a planned 2.4 GWe nuclear power plant of Bangladesh. It will be the country's first nuclear power plant, and the first of two units is expected to go into operation in 2023. It is to be built by the Russian Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation.LocationThe nuclear power plant will be built at Rooppur, 200 km north-west of Dhaka, at Paksey union on the bank of the river Padma in the Ishwardi subdistrict of Pabna District, in the northwest of the country.HistoryThe proposal was made in 1961. Government took 253.90 acres of land in that year to build the plant. In 1963 the plant was approved. Discussions took place with the Canadian government in 1964 and 1966. Discussions with the governments of Sweden and Norway were also going on in those years. However, no real progress was achieved. After the independence of Bangladesh, the Government of Bangladesh started discussion with the Soviet Union in 1974, however no agreement was reached. In 2001 the government adopted a national Nuclear Power Action Plan.In 2009 the Bangladesh government again started discussion with the Russian government and on 13 February the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding. Rosatom said they would start construction by 2013.