PM inaugurates installation of 2nd reactor at Rooppur nuclear power plant

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday inaugurated the installation of the second and final reactor at the country's first Rooppur nuclear power plant.

The reactor pressure vessel was installed at the second unit of the 2,400 MW Rooppur nuclear power plant (RNPP).

She joined the programme virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban while it was held in Ishwardi of the northern district of Pabna.

The country's lone nuclear power plant, which is being constructed at Rooppur in Ishwardi at a total cost of $12.65 billion, has two units with a power generation capacity of 1200 MW each.

In October last year, the prime minister inaugurated the reactor pressure vessel of the plant's first unit.

According to Rosatom, the Russian contractor of the project, the VVER-1200 reactor vessel passed the input control by all regulatory requirements before its installation Wednesday.

Rosatom officials said the operation to install the VVER-1200 reactor vessel of the second power unit in the design position was carried out in several stages.

A Liebherr-11350 heavy crawler crane lifted the reactor vessel onto the transport portal of the power unit.

Then, on a special transport trolley, it was moved to the central hall of the reactor compartment. Further, with the help of a polar crane, the reactor vessel was turned into a vertical position and installed on a support ring in the reactor shaft.

According to the RNPP officials, the first unit of the project has already made 70 per cent progress in physical work. With the installation of the reactor pressure vessel at the second unit, the project will have 53 percent of the physical work completed overall.

"With the installation of the reactor pressure vessel, the project's second unit's physical work will achieve over 45 per cent of the target", Dr Md Shawkat Akbar, the project director in the country's biggest scheme in power generation, told UNB on Tuesday.

The government undertook the project in 2009 and after a long discussion signed an $11.385 billion credit agreement with Russian Federation on July 26 in 2016 to implement the project by appointing the Russian state nuclear energy firm-Rosatom--as its contractor.

In addition, on August 6, 2019, Bangladesh signed a nuclear fuel supply agreement with Russia for the project.

Under the deal, the Russian state-owned nuclear fuel firm TVEL Joint Stock Company will supply nuclear fuel for the entire life span of the power plant.

Each unit of the power plant will have to reload one-third of the total required nuclear fuel after every 18 months and the first, second and third reloads will be provided by the Russian firm free of cost.

Each reloading of nuclear fuel will cost $62 million, equivalent to Tk 550 crore.

Shawkat informed us that after the installation of the pressure vessel at the second unit, the major work that will remain unfinished include pre-operational testing and fuel loading.

"We hope, we'll perform this work by June next year", he said adding, some more work will be required to be completed before commissioning the project.

"Construction of power grid line and building of communication and security systems are among the important work required to be completed before mid-2024", he said.

The second half of the year 2024 is set to be the deadline to start commercial operation of the 1200 MW first unit of the nuclear power plant while the second unit in 2025, said Shawkat, also managing director of the Nuclear Power Company Bangladesh Limited (NPCBL), a dedicated company to deal with the nuclear power plant.

Initially, a target was set to start the commercial operation of the first unit in 2022 and the second unit in 2023 and then the target was deferred.

Officials of the NPCBL said about 14,000 foreign workers from different western countries, including Russia and Belarus, are now engaged in the project under the contractor and its sub-contractors to execute different works.