Nuclear scientists have raised concerns over the way uranium fuel is transported by road from Dhaka to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Ishwardi, Pabna, particularly the advance publicity surrounding the movement.
They say transporting the fuel by road carries safety and security risks, including the possibility of an accident, while advance disclosure of the shipments could also create opportunities for sabotage.
The latest uranium shipment from Russia was transported on 3 October from Dhaka to Rooppur, about 216 kilometres away, in three covered vans under special army security.
A government official who was part of the convoy told TIMES that extensive security measures are put in place during such movements, with army and law enforcement personnel deployed along the route.
Normal traffic is stopped throughout the journey, while public movement is also restricted around roadside shops and markets.
Shafiqul Islam, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Dhaka, questioned the publicity surrounding the transport.
“In different countries, these are transported with the utmost secrecy. In Bangladesh, on the other hand, news of the fuel being brought in is publicised with great fanfare and is even broadcast live on television,” he said.
He said such publicity could allow a group intending to carry out sabotage to plan an attack.
“If any group thinks it wants to carry out some kind of sabotage, it may make such a plan. If something like that happens, Bangladesh will suffer financial losses and its image in the world will also be damaged,” Shafiqul said.
He advised maintaining secrecy during fuel transport and suggested developing Ishwardi Airport so that aircraft carrying the fuel could land closer to the plant.
“If the government thinks that simply building a power plant means the job is done, that is not the case. The government has to develop Ishwardi Airport so that aircraft carrying the fuel can land there directly,” he said.
A government nuclear scientist who travelled with the convoy during the roughly five-and-a-half-hour journey from Dhaka to Rooppur said fuel would have to be brought in for the power plant every year.
He said Russia would also take back used uranium after several years, making it necessary to develop a permanent system for transporting the fuel by air.
Ishwardi has an unused airport just nine kilometres from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
Built by the British government during the Second World War, the airport was then known as the HIJLI Base Area and was used by the United States Air Force in 1945.
Pakistan International Airlines operated the first passenger flight there in 1962. After independence, Biman Bangladesh Airlines ran regular flights on the Dhaka-Ishwardi route until the service was suspended in 1989.
Private carrier United Airways resumed flights on the route in 2013, but the service stopped again a year later.
An official of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority said the airport could be further developed.
“This airport can be developed further. The runway and other infrastructure will have to be built to accommodate large aircraft,” the official said.
Muhammad Mustafizur Rahman, a director of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said none of the country’s domestic airports was commercially profitable and that they were mainly operated using revenue from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
“If the government wants to reopen the airport for transporting fuel to and from the nuclear power plant, that is a decision for the government,” he said.
Aviation Minister M Rashiduzzaman Millat could not be reached for comment despite several attempts by phone.
