In line with the first unit, all major nuclear equipment installation works of the second unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is about to be completed with the installation of the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) due on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will virtually inaugurate the installation of the RPV from Ganabhaban. Russia's Atomic Energy Organisation Rosatom's Director-General Alexey Likhachev will attend the ceremony, among other officials of the organisation.
Bangladeshi and Russian officials at the Rooppur project have already completed all the preparations for the installation. RNPP project Nuclear Scientist and Project Director Dr Shawkat Akber said that the project has seen around 53 per cent financial progress and 55 per cent overall physical progress.
"However, the overall progress of the first unit is 70 per cent," he added.
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 that 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, the project work is going as per the defined timeline and we are hopeful of completing the project within the time," said Yeafesh Osman.
The minister also mentioned that the first unit is expected to start production in next October, and the fuel for this unit would arrive by next September.
Earlier on 10 October of last year, the prime minister inaugurated the RPV at the first unit of the RNPP. As per the project plan, the first unit of the nuclear power plant will supply 1,200 MW in 2023. The same amount of electricity will be available from the second unit in 2024.
The RNPP project is being implemented by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with the technical and financial support of 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.
