RNPP clocks 55% progress: PD

The installation of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) at the second unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is scheduled to take place today, and the event will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from Ganabhaban in Dhaka through video conference.

Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom’s Director General Alexey Likhachev will attend the ceremony. Bangladeshi and Russian officials at the Rooppur project have already completed all preparations for the RPV’s installation.

Responding to a query, RNPP Nuclear Scientist and Project Director Dr Md Shawkat Akbar said, “The project has witnessed around 53 per cent financial progress and 55 per cent overall physical progress. Besides, the overall progress of the first unit is 70 per cent.”

The RPV holds nuclear fuel when the reactors operate, and it also provides one of several barriers that keep radioactive material out of the environment.

Science Minister Yeafesh Osman on Tuesday said the installation of almost all types of nuclear equipment will be completed by installing the reactor pressure vessel inside the physical structure of the second unit.

“As of now, work on the project is moving forward as per the defined timeline, and we are hopeful of completing the project within the schedule,” Osman added.

The minister also mentioned that the first unit is expected to start production October 2023, and fuel for this unit would arrive by September 2023.

On October 10 last year, the prime minister inaugurated the RPV for the first unit of RNPP. As per the project plan, the first unit of the nuclear power plant will supply 1,200 MW from next year. The same amount of electricity will be available from the second unit from 2024.

The RNPP project is being implemented by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with technical and financial support from Russia. The project’s construction cost, including manpower training, amounts to $12.65 billion, and 90 per cent of it is being funded by Russia.

At present, around 33,000 people are working at the RNPP site, including 5,500 foreigners.