PM to inaugurate Rooppur Unit-2 reactor pressure vessel installation

Highlights:

• RNPP sees 55 % overall progress
• 1st unit is expected to be commissioned next October
• Fuel for the first unit due to arrive by next September

The installation of the reactor pressure vessel at the second unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna is scheduled for Wednesday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will virtually inaugurate the installation from Dhaka.

Bangladeshi and Russian officials at the project have already taken all preparations for the installation through which all major nuclear equipment installation at the second unit is about to be completed.

A reactor pressure vessel holds nuclear fuel when reactors operate and provides one of several barriers that keep radioactive material from getting out into the environment.

In October last year, the prime minister inaugurated the reactor pressure vessel at the first unit of the plant, enabling Bangladesh to become the 33rd country to have a nuclear reactor for producing electricity from nuclear energy.

Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February this year, uncertainty grew over the future of the project, but the work nevertheless continued uninterrupted.

Under the project plan, the first unit of the nuclear power plant will supply 1,200MW in 2023 and the same amount of electricity will be available from the second unit in 2024.

The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission is implementing the Rooppur project with technical and financial support from Russia. The project's construction cost, including manpower training, amounts to $12.65 billion, 90% of which is being funded by Russia.

From the date of its commercial run, the plant is expected to produce electricity for a lifetime of a minimum of 60 years while the economic life of a conventional power plant is 22 years.

Besides its long-lasting service, the plant will also help Bangladesh generate electricity without emitting carbon dioxide into the environment, which is a common externality in conventional power plants run mainly on coal, gas and oil.

Science and Technology 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, the work of the project is going on according to the timeline and we are hopeful of completing the project within the deadline," he added.

Regarding power generation and transmission, the minister said, "We are committed to completing the construction work within the timeline. But the readiness on my side is not all, the party that will purchase the electricity needs to be ready with its transmission line."

Work on some components of the transmission line to evacuate electricity from this plant has not been started yet, said a source at the Power Division.

Alexey Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, Russia's Atomic Energy Organisation, will attend Wednesday's ceremony, among other officials.

Nuclear scientist and project director of the power plant Md Shaukat Akbar said the project has seen around 53 % financial progress and 55% physical progress. The overall progress of the first unit is 70%.

"Now we are in the stage of commissioning work of the first unit which we expect to start in October next year," he added.

He said the power plant's fuel – uranium – is expected to arrive in Bangladesh in September next year.

The project director said loan repayment will start in two years of the commercial operation when the plant earns revenue by selling power.

"The $11.38 billion loan will be paid in 20 years," he added. 

Around 33,000 people are working at the plant site, including 5,500 foreigners.