PM inaugurates reactor pressure vessel installation at Rooppur Power Plant Unit-2

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated installation work of reactor pressure vessel  (RPV) at Unit-2 of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant  (RNPP).

She virtually inaugurated the installation of the RPV in the 2nd unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna from her official residence Ganabhaban on Wednesday morning.

All major nuclear equipment installation works of the second unit of the RNPP is about to complete with the installation of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV).

Director General of Rosatom, Russia's Atomic Energy Organisation, Alexey Likhachev attended the ceremony in person.

According to the project details, Bangladeshi and Russian officials at the Rooppur project have already completed all the preparations for the installation.

It said the RPV holds nuclear fuel when the reactors operate and provides one of several barriers that keep radioactive material out of the environment.

Earlier on 10 October of last year, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the RPV at the first unit of the RNPP, which entitled Bangladesh as the 33rd country to have a nuclear power plant  for producing electricity from nuclear energy.

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

The Rooppur 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% of it is being funded by Russia.

Nuclear Scientist and the project director of RNPP project Dr Md Shaukat Akbar,  said that the project has seen around 53 % financial progress and 55% physical progress. However, the overall progress of the first unit is 70%.

At present, there are around 33000 manpower working at RNPP site including 5500 foreigners.

By Daily Sun