After Bangladesh, Sri Lanka to be powered by Russia-built nuclear energy facility

Sri Lanka this week reached a deal with Russian nuclear giant Rosatamto build a nuclear power plant that may run two reactors and generate 300 megawatts of energy, the Sri Lankan ambassador in Russia said.

"We will go for a nuclear power plant … There are options actually … two sources, 300 megawatts," Janitha Abeywickrema Liyanage told Sputnik on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The ambassador said that having its own power plant would allow the Indian Ocean island nation to overcome the energy crisis.

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Reports in the Russian media stated that Moscowwill speed up the approval process to begin the construction in the near future.

"There is a proposal and there is approval to follow the procedures from the Sri Lankan cabinet, and the International Atomic Energy Agency is also now looking at it, and they have set up certain working groups. Rosatom has set up four working groups in four different areas," Janitha Abeywickrema Liyanage said.

Russia has agreed to take back nuclear waste from proposed plant: Sri Lanka

Earlier in March,Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board (SLARB) chairman SRD Rosa told Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror that the country plans to have either off-shore or on–shore Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) that have a power capacity of up to 100 MW per unit.

With the use of nuclear power generators, the country plans to minimise the use of fossil fuels that have already put a burden on the debt-ridden economy of the South Asian island nation.

Also watch |Russia offers to help build Sri Lanka's first nuclear power plant

The newspaper had quoted Rosa as saying: "The government has sought to implement the project in collaboration with the Russian government. The required technology will be provided by them, and they had also agreed to take back the nuclear waste. The Russian government has the technology to reprocess the nuclear waste."

Russia is also building Bangladesh its first nuclear power plant, namedRooppur Nuclear Power Plant. It is located on the bank of the Padma river about 160 km from capital Dhaka. With its first nuclear plant, Dhaka, like Colombo hopes to reduce its dependence on coal and other fossil fuels.

India too is a stakeholder in the R-NPP, making the project the first Indo-Russian nuclear project outside India.

So far, it is not clear if India would have any stakes in the proposed nuclear plant in Sri Lanka.

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