The Rooppur Power Plant is not launching soon. The original plan was for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant to start up this December. However, the facility is unable to start production because the transmission grid line is not yet ready. Senior project executives estimate that finishing all preparations and starting trial production will take an extra six months.
The Rooppur Power Plant: Reactor and primary infrastructure development were finished around a year ago, according to project sources. The first supply of fuel (uranium) from Russia reached Rooppur in October of last year in five shipments. However, the lack of the grid line has prevented the production of electricity. Under the revised timetable, the grid line for the first unit will be finished by March of next year, and production will start a few months later.
According to Rooppur NPP Project Director Dr. Zahedul Hasan, a number of tests must be carried out once the grid line is prepared before production can start. Only after all testing and preparations are finished can trial production start.
He added that after the preliminary testing was over, loading fuel would take about two months. After that, it will take another month to begin trial production. Trial production may be feasible by the third quarter, which is probably in August, if the grid is prepared by March of the following year. By the end of 2026, around a year after the first unit’s launch, the reactor for the second unit should be up and running. The Rooppur Power Plant…
According to PGCB Managing Director (MD) Abdur Rashid Khan, the first six months’ progress was satisfactory. However, the transmission line’s construction was severely slowed down by the widespread instability brought on by protests in mid-July. After August 5, there was no further work.
Security worries caused nationals from India, Singapore, Turkey, and other nations directly involved in the transmission line’s construction to return home, according to Delwar Hossain, Deputy Scheme Director of Power Grid. Consequently, for the next three months, grid line building was completely halted.
“We have been in contact with the contracting firms since the interim government took over,” said MD Abdur Rashid Khan. They returned to work at the end of October once security issues were resolved. But we were severely hampered by the three-month work stoppage, which prevented us from finishing the grid line by the deadline. The Rooppur Power Plant…
