The main concrete works of auxiliary reactor building at unit-1 of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has been completed on April 7, which is eight months ahead of schedule.
The building is a part of the ‘Nuclear Island’ and is designed to house process instrumentation and control devices, a project official said. The construction work of the country’s first nuclear power project with a capacity of 2400 megawatt is going on in full swing at Rooppur in the Pabna district, with the support of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom.
It is a top priority project on the Bangladesh government’s agenda, all the way up to the Prime Minister’s Office.
According to Rosatom, the construction time period of the building was reduced by 241 days thanks to logistic processes optimization and were the timely supply of the required resources like materials and tools.
The average volume of concrete laid by specialists of NIKIMT-Atomstroy accounted for 1,600 m3 per month instead of the scheduled1,000 m3.
Alexey Deriy, Vice President of ASE and Project Director for Rooppur NPP Construction said that “The pace of work, achieved by the specialists of NIKIMT-Atomstroy, while satisfying all the stringent quality requirements, demonstrates the highest potentials of Rooppur NPP construction workers. With such high professionalism of our employees, we safely can say that construction of Bangladesh’s first NPP will be completed within the scheduled dates, despite a range of challenges including COVID-19 pandemic and complex international situation.”
The reduced time period in construction allowed reducing the cost, first of all, by means of saving the semi-fixed part of overhead costs and making a significant number of highly qualified labor resources available ahead of schedule, who have already been engaged in the performance of other production tasks.
The government believes at least 1,200MW units of electricity from the first nuclear plant will be added to the national grid by 2023. The second with the same amount of power will be launched by 2024.
Originally, the first unit of the power plant was scheduled to open and start functioning by 2024 and the second one by 2025.
Manufacturing of its various types of machinery and equipment is running in full swing in Russia. Some of them have already reached Bangladesh, some have been shipped and others are still in the manufacturing process.
The design of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been developed in such a way that it will not succumb to any accident - natural or man-made. One of the main concerns of any nuclear power plant is its waste management. The Russian Federation will take back all spent nuclear fuel from Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, and they have signed a deal in this regard, an official said.
Officials said the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will bring about a comprehensive change in the country's economy, contributing more than two percent to GDP growth.
Once the nuke plant goes into operation, it will offer a window of opportunity, such as ensuring uninterrupted electricity supply to over 15 lakh families, and jobs for a large number of people.
That is apart from the fact that the plant will make special contributions to industrial development and scientific research. Above all, it will signal a release from the monopoly fuel of oil, gas, and coal for power generation.
On October 2 in 2013, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the first stone in the foundation of Rooppur NPP. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the construction of the Rooppur NPP Project on 6 December 2016 at an estimated cost of Taka 1,13,092.91 crore.
Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is planned and being constructed according to Russian design. The plant will have two power units with the latest generation 3+ VVER 1200 reactor, which will fully meet all international safety requirements.
