OREANDA-NEWS. АSE Group of Companies, which is in the management circle of State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, held the Children and the Atom event for Bengali pupils which included a children drawing contest with a theme “What my country would be like with an unlimited energy source” and presentation of The Nuclear ABC, a children’s book on the atomic energy.

The Children and the Atom event took part at the Nuclear Industry Information Center in the city of Dhaka as a part of the Independence Day of Bangladesh commemoration. Makhmudul Khasan, acting Chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Mohammad Shawkat Akbar, Director of Rooppur NPP Project, Abul Basher Md. Zahurul Islam, director of Nuclear Industry Information Center in the city of Dhaka, Philipp Kosov, Rosatom representative in Bangladesh, Sergey Sadovnikov, ASE representative in Bangladesh, and other representatives of government entities and companies involved in the project of construction of Rooppur NPP, the first nuclear plant in Bangladesh, took part in the event.

“Rosatom has the expertise and experience necessary to help Bangladesh with its challenging tasks to implement national programme of NPP construction and development of high-tech industry intended to promote social and economic growth in this country. We understand that the future of the atomic industry is in hands of the students of today, and that the generation which is now sitting at school desks may in the future want to study in order to obtain a degree to be able to operate an NPP or even construct nuclear power plants. It therefore gives me great pleasure to announce the opening of the Children and the Atom event”, said Maksim V. Elchishchev, Vice-president of ASE Group of Companies for project in Bangladesh, in his welcome address.

Upon opening the event Maxim Yelchishchev congratulated everyone on the Independence Day of Bangladesh celebrated throughout the country on March 26 and expressed his hope that Russia and Bangladesh will keep on cooperating including the field of nuclear energy.

“The Intergovernmental Agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy, signed in 2011, serves as a reliable basis for our interaction in the nuclear field. For 5 years we have worked hard to create a reliable and safe energy source in Bangladesh, and we have closely approached the start of construction of the first NPP in the country”, added Maksim V. Elchishchev.

“Bangladesh expects to receive its first gigawatt of electric power from Rooppur NPP first power unit in 2021. I believe that this electric power will bring the life in Bangladesh to high-tech and bright future and create tens of thousands of new jobs while local companies will be able to participate in the project”, said Mr. Mahmudul Hasan, Chairman-in-charge of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.

The intergovernmental agreement concerning the cooperation in construction of the first NPP in Bangladesh was signed between Moscow and Dhaka in November, 2011. A site at the Eastern bank of Ganges River in Pabna district, 160 km N-E from Dhaka, was chosen as a location for the future NPP called Rooppur. The foundation stone for the Rooppur NPP was laid in the autumn of 2013. General contract for construction of the NPP in Bangladesh was signed in late December, 2015 during a business trip of Sergey Kirienko, Rosatom Chief Executive Officer, to Dhaka. Russia is responsible for design, construction and turnkey commissioning of two power units with VVER-type reactors with capacity of 1,200 MW each at the Rooppur site as well as for construction of necessary infrastructure.