Bangladesh is going to sign an agreement on returning spent nuclear fuel from the proposed Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant to Russia on Wednesday. A high-powered Bangladeshi delegation led by the minister of state for science and technology, Yeafes Osman, will leave for Moscow on Monday in this regard, sources said.

On June 5, the Cabinet had approved a draft of the pact titled “Agreement between the Russian Federation and Bangladesh on Cooperation Concerning Return of Spent Nuclear Fuel from Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant to the Russian Federation”. Talking to The Independent, managing director of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh (NPCBL) Dr Mohammad Shawkat Akbar said the agreement will safeguard the country from the hazard of nuclear waste. “It would help in disposal of nuclear waste in accordance with full safety measures,” Akbar said.

Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation is going to build the 2400 megawatt nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Pabna district. The first two units of the plant are expected to go into operation in 2023.

Last year, on July 26, the government had signed a credit agreement for $11.385 billion (equivalent to Tk 101,200 crore) with Russia for the proposed plant.

The Russian government will provide the loan at a Libor interest rate for six months plus 1.75 per cent per annum, but it will never cross 4 per cent. Bangladesh will pay off the loan in 28 years with a 10-year grace period. On December 25, 2015, Dhaka had signed a general agreement with Moscow to build the nuclear power plant at Rooppur.

The government has already ratified the “Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material and Nuclear Facilities”. The original convention was first adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member states in 1979. Around 107 countries have signed and ratified the recent amendment to the Convention of the IAEA so far, and Bangladesh also needs to sign the amendment as a signatory of the original convention. The amendment covers domestic use of nuclear materials, storage and transportation.