NSU Research Contributions

Title : Estimating the economic cost of setting up a nuclear power plant at Rooppur in Bangladesh

Authors : Gour Gobinda Goswami, Umama Rahman, and Mehdi Chowdhury

Journal Title: Environment Science and Pollution Research	Volume Number: 29	Publication Year : 2022	Issue Number: 35073–35095
Index: scopus	Ranking: Q1	ISSN: 09441344	Publisher Name: Springer Nature
Pages : 1-23

Funding Information:

Funding Source : NSU

CTRGC Code : CTRG-19-SBE-04

Year of Funding : 2022

Other Information:

Direct Sustainable Development Goals : SDG7 Affordable & Clean Energy	Indirect Sustainable Development Goals : SDG7 Affordable & Clean Energy SDG9 Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure SDG13 Climate Action	Sustainable Development Sub Goals : Universal access to affordable, reliable energy Increase renewable energy share globally Enhance international cooperation on clean energy R&D Enhance scientific research & technological capacity
Impact statement: The Bangladesh government is in the final stage of setting up a nuclear power plant with two units at Rooppur, Ishwardi, each with a capacity of 1200 MW, to be launched in 2023 to urgently address the energy shortage. The project's financial cost is US$12.65 billion. The primary purpose of this paper is to calculate the economic cost of setting up this plant by using the estimation method developed by Du and Parsons (2009), MIT (2003; 2009; 2018), and Singh et al. (2018). It has been found that the economic cost is 9.36 cents/kWh for a capacity of 2400 MW. In contrast, for a similar plant in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, India, the corresponding cost figure is 5.36 cents/kWh for 2000 MW. Even though it seems costlier than in India, the study suggests that policymakers should prefer nuclear power, as it is cost-competitive relative to other electricity facilities. The main advantage of nuclear power is cost-competitive baseload power generation with zero carbon emissions. This nuclear power plant (NPP) project is expected to boost Bangladesh's energy sector by transforming the country from an energy-deficient to an energy-surplus nation.	Collaboration: Partner University	Keywords: Nuclear power plant, Rooppur, Nuclear power, Nuclear energy, Atomic energy, Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), Cost–benefit