Perspectives of the Residents in Proximity to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh

In this work, an economic study of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is conducted. It is the first nuclear power plant being constructed in Bangladesh. Correlation from available literature is used to predict the net power output of VVER-1200 type nuclear power plant in the weather condition of Bangladesh. This predicted value is used to estimate the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of the plant. Results reveal that the estimated LCOE for the plant is 91.19 $/MWh for 50 years operating life, lower than most of its conventional and renewable competitors. However, LCOE of the nuclear power plant becomes higher than that of coal-based power plants in the country if the plant lifetime is 20 years. This is, however, very unlikely since the average lifetime of a nuclear power plant is much longer. Therefore, Rooppur nuclear power plant is found to be a feasible option from geo-economic point of view.

Water quality has long been an important part of the operation of nuclear and thermal power plants. Water is used as a working and cooling fluid in power plants. The quality of source water to be used in the power plants after treatment should conform to the prescribed values of Physico-Chemical properties like pH, EC, TDS, Alkalinity, Hardness, presence of Chloride content, Silica, and Heavy metals as recommended by technical guidelines. To analyze the water characteristics, water samples were collected from various sources. Two river water samples and a groundwater sample (marked as PP1, PP2, and NPP site) were tested to determine the water properties. The Physico-chemical properties of the water samples were determined using various analytical tests. Heavy metals were also investigated using the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric (AAS) process. The Physico-chemical properties of investigated samples were so good as to the recommended values of the World Health Organization (WHO), United States of Public Health (USPH), and Bangladesh Environmental Department. But the values were very far from the recommended values for thermal power plants operation. So, it needs to treat to use in the boilers. Gravitation, Carbon filtration, Ion exchange method, and Reverse Osmosis (RO) are good ways to treat the water before use in power plants. The Padma River water is better than the other two samples when the Physico-chemical characteristics of the sample waters were analyzed to the prescribed levels for the boiler water of a thermal power plant and the secondary water circuit of a third-generation nuclear PWR reactor. The aim of this work is to explore the difference between the source water quality parameters values and those of the recommended values of technical guidelines. To minimize the water treatment cost, a new site for the installation of a power plant project in Bangladesh can be advocated depending on the availability of good quality water.

The status of NORMs in natural environment adjacent to the Rooppur nuclear power plant of Bangladesh

This Bangladesh, a densely populated country, is an emerging economy of South Asia effectively maintaining sustained economic growth of least 6% since last decade resulted a considerable high electricity demand each year. The per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh is 252 kWh which is very low compared to other developing nations. For every countries perspective electricity production and distribution is very important to reach in their optimum goal from their countries development view. Now a day it becomes very challenging to generate sufficient electric power for Bangladesh to meet the energy demand with its rapid growing population and industrialization. The Government of the country is trying to lessen the power crisis by taking several initiatives like small (10-20MW) power plants, IPP, QRPP etc. But these are not a permanent solution. Moreover, QRPP and IPP are mainly oil and gas based, which are very costly and these are also not very efficient. Besides Government is going to set up more coal based power station and small scale renewable energy plants. But coal based power station are required very large space, its initial cost is high and create serious environmental threat to the surroundings. Renewable energy is not yet developed in the country and less efficient. To great extent, therefore, NPP can be a promising solution to lessen the running energy crisis for Bangladesh considering the facts that there are many problems and threat issues. Bangladesh's Government now inferred to build a nuclear power plant to meet rapidly-increasing demand, reduce dependency on natural gas and to develop the country's economy and recently a project has taken called RNPP which is already approved in the cabinet meeting of the Government of Bangladesh with the aid of Russia. The purpose of this paper is to analysis the feasibility of RNPP considering the energy crisis in Bangladesh

Energy is the prime need for the development of a country and its substantial economic growth. Over all forms of energies, nuclear energy is the most prominent, powerful and challenging energy source. Despite the effectiveness of this energy, its hazardous radiation effects can enormously be dangerous and destructive. Our study mainly focuses on the comparative overviews of nuclear energy aspects of Bangladesh, discussions on radiation effects on environment and living objects health. The paper also suggests some challenges to meet the probable future shortcomings of Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is said to be one of the biggest energy starved countries, with the present demand for electricity at 9000 plus MW (Mega Watt) as opposed to the production of 6500 to 7500 MW. Access to electricity in Bangladesh is one of the lowest, about 40 percent of the total population are without access to adequate, cheap and quality energy. At present, we have to depend on indigenous energy resources, which are finite as well - gas, oil, furnace oil and coal to produce electricity. And about 55 per cent of our natural gas is used to produce this power. The reserve of gas is not infinite and will soon run out and before that happens, we must adopt alternative energy sources, be it renewable with a bio ecological/ green revolution or build nuclear power plants (NPP). Hence, the government recently decided to join the world's 30strong nuclear power club, signing an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Russia on November 2, 2011 for a nuclear power plant at Rooppur, Ishwardi of Pabna district, in the country's northwest region. This paper discusses about the prospect of green power generation in our country by using nuclear energy and find out if it is a proper decision to build a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

Nuclear energy has been identified as an economical and environmentally clean source of electricity generation in Bangladesh. Nuclear power plants (NPP) are designed to serve as the base-load plant with a lower ramp rate of power change, stringent voltage and frequency margin. Moreover, the nuclear reactor needs a reliable long-term shutdown cooling that consumes huge electricity from the grid under strict voltage and frequency regulations. This paper addresses a modeling approach including the development of a fault-tree model for reliability evaluation of an electric grid system to accommodate an NPP. The analysis of the existing grid system in Bangladesh identified the areas of improvement in which the programs for grid frequency control, modifying governors of the operating plants and reduction of seasonal load variation are the most significant. This study also revealed that the development of a detailed fault tree model is essential to identify the most susceptible elements of the grid system and resources can be allocated accordingly to minimize the risk. The hindrances related to grid development are also discussed in this paper.

Insights from Residents Living near the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a developing country and it’s increasing economy can be maintained by providing sufficient amount of electric power supply. Therefore government is initiating Rooppur nuclear power project is one of them which is needed to be sited beside a vast amount of water source, lowest populated area and away from the locality to reduce the damage caused by any nuclear accidents. In this thesis paper we have shown that, the the dangers of residing errors of Rooppur nuclear power plant and give a proposal to go for onshore nuclear power plant in Bangladesh with two proposed designs of passive safety systems PSS-I & PSS-II. These systems will give safety to the power plants in the case of plant blackout during accidents.

An empirical study of the risk-benefit perceptions between the nuclear and non-nuclear groups towards the nuclear power plant in Bangladesh

Zero-emission energy sources like nuclear energy are taken into account worldwide due to the negative environmental consequences of fossil fuels and their limited availability over the years. Bangladesh plans to add nuclear energy to its portfolio of energy sources by 2024. Under the scope of this study, the country's nuclear energy strategy was looked at in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This was done using a method known as SWOT analysis. It has come to light that Bangladesh has a significant number of aspects in terms of strengths as well as opportunities that make the possibility of doing an investment in the construction of a nuclear power plant a realistic choice. Difficulties such as a culture of poor maintenance, financial burden, lack of skilled manpower, a poor power grid, radioactive waste management, and corruption are the weaknesses and threats to the effective construction, operation, and maintenance activities of the nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. By mitigating these difficult aspects, Bangladesh's journey to adopt nuclear energy can be more smooth.

In recent years, the nuclear power plant has received huge attention as it generates vast amounts of power at a lower cost. However, its creation of radioactive wastes is a major environmental concern. Therefore, the nuclear power plant requires a reliable and uninterrupted monitoring system as an essential part of it. Monitoring a nuclear power plant using wireless sensor networks is a convenient and popular practice now. This paper proposes a hybrid approach for monitoring wireless sensor networks in the context of a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. Our hybrid approach enhances the lifespan of wireless sensor networks reducing power consumption and offering better connectivity of sensors. To do so, it uses both the topology maintenance and topology construction algorithms. We found that the HGETRecRot topology maintenance algorithm enhances the network lifetime compared to other algorithms. This algorithm increases the communication and sensing coverage area but decreases the network performance. We also propose a prediction model, based on linear regression algorithm, that predicts the best combination of topology maintenance and topology construction algorithms.

Bangladesh lies in a tectonically active zone. Earlier geological studies show that Bangladesh and its adjoining areas are exposed to a threat of severe earthquakes. Earthquakes may have disastrous consequences for a densely populated country. This dictates the need for a detailed analysis of the situation prior to the construction of nuclear power plant as required by the IAEA standards. This study reveals the correlation between seismic acceleration and potential damage. Procedures are presented for investigating the seismic hazard within the future NPP construction area. It has been shown that the obtained values of the earthquake’s peak ground acceleration are at the level below the design basis earthquake (DBE) level and will not lead to nuclear power plant malfunctions. For the most severe among the recorded and closely located earthquake centers (Madhupur) the intensity of seismic impacts on the nuclear power plant site does not exceed eight points on the MSK-64 scale. The existing predictions as to the possibility of a super-earthquake with magnitude in excess of nine points on the Richter scale to take place on the territory of the country indicate the necessity to develop an additional efficient seismic diagnostics system and to switch nuclear power plants in good time to passive heat removal mode as stipulated by the WWER 3+ design. A conclusion is made that accounting for the predicted seismic impacts in excess of the historically recorded levels should be achieved by the establishment of an additional efficient seismic diagnostics system and by timely switching the nuclear power plants to passive heat removal mode with reliable isolation of the reactor core and spent nuclear fuel pools.

Public awareness and stakeholder involvement for Bangladesh's nuclear power plant

This paper describes the interconnection and interface between Nuclear Power plant and electrical grid infrastructure. In its first part, the power grid system in Bangladesh and suitability of building nuclear power plant at Ruppur in Bangladesh is described. The condition for a nuclear power plant to be included to the national grid system is also mentioned. Impact of NPP developer and operator and importance of transmission system operators (TSO) for installment of NPP. In the end of the writing, what types of grid failure could occur and how this grid system can be made more reliable is also described. Moreover, advantage of grid interconnection and site selection assessment of location is briefly mentioned as well.