Unit-1 set to be commission this year, unit-2 by 2025
Ishwardi (Pabna) Correspondent :
The first unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will be commissioned by the end of this year. The second unit will be commissioned next year by 2025. In other words, two units of Rooppur nuclear power plant will be fully operational in the next year. The Ministry of Science and Technology says that after importing nuclear fuel, the country’s mega power plant is now being prepared for commissioning. Russia, the country building the nuclear power plant, has also given full assurance to Bangladesh to explain the project within the stipulated time.
Nuclear experts say that Bangladesh is going to set a new record in implementing the complex and country’s first nuclear project in the shortest period of time. Which will take the country to a new level of capability. Fuel has already arrived in the project area. Some think that the arrival of fuel means that electricity can be produced immediately. Actually it is not like that. Now the re-commissioning stage is going on. By completing three more steps, we will be able to go into commercial power generation. Also, if the grid and other things work properly, then the trial or pilot commercial operation of power generation will be able to go into operation in a short period of time. And if this happens, Bangladesh will be a milestone as a country of technical development.
To fulfill Bangabandhu’s dream, the country’s largest mega nuclear power project is under construction at Rooppur in Ishwardi. Although this project was accepted in 1961 on the bank of Padma River near Hardinge Bridge, the effort to produce electricity from nuclear was thwarted by the cunning of Pakistani exploiters. After the independence of the country, the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took the initiative to produce 200 MW of nuclear power here around 1972-74. After the brutal assassination of the Father of the Nation in 1975, this project was nipped in the bud. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took initiatives for implementation after the Awami League government came to power in 2009 after almost 50 years. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid its foundation in October 2013. On December 25, 2015, the Atomic Energy Commission of Bangladesh signed an agreement with Atomstroy Export, a subsidiary of the Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom, to implement the project. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on November 30, 2017 inaugurated the concrete casting work of the 1st unit for the construction of nuclear power plant at Rooppur, Ishwardi. The construction of the second unit reactor began the following year. After five decades of independence, that dream is now a reality. The megastructure, a new monument of efficiency, is now being prepared for power generation.
By the end of September 2023, the process of bringing nuclear fuel to Bangladesh will begin. Under the supervision of Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom, the assembly of 168 uranium in seven stages reached the fresh fuel storage in the project area of Rooppur. Preparations for thorough testing and fuel loading are now underway. On October 5 of last year, the DG of Russia’s state nuclear agency Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, handed over the ‘fresh nuclear fuel’. At the time, he said that the project is on the verge of success after passing many stages of irony. In response to the question of how Bangladesh will avoid a critical situation in such a sensitive establishment, he said that not a single worker of Russia will leave Rooppur under any challenge.
