Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the installation work of Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) at unit-2 of the under-construction 2,400 megawatt (MW) Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) at Ishwardi in Pabna next week.
Director General of Rosatom, Russian state-owned nuclear company, Alexey Likhachev is also likely to attend the event.
Sheikh Hasina may join the event virtually, a senior official at the Ministry of Science and Technology told the FE on Saturday.
The RPV is a thick steel container that holds nuclear fuel when the reactors operate, and provides one of several barriers that keep radioactive material out of the environment.
The PM also inaugurated the same, manufactured by the Volgodonsk branch of Russia's AEM-Technologies, at the first unit of RNPP on October 10 last year.
During the installation process, a Liebherr-11350 heavy caterpillar crane raised the RPV to the transportation lock, inside the reactor building containment. It was then moved to the central hall of the reactor building on a special transportation trolley.
Finally, a polar crane was used to put the RPV in a vertical position and install it on the support ring in the reactor pit.
The US$13.48 billion worth of RNPP is being built under a supplier's credit deal with Russia and, Atomstroyexport, Rosatom's international projects subsidiary, is the lead contractor of the project.
The Russian Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs and Bangladesh's state-owned Sonali Bank Ltd. are the authorised banks for the state-sponsored loan.
The government of Bangladesh will provide Tk 220.52 billion from its own coffer while India will provide around $1.0 billion as a loan to facilitate construction of necessary plant infrastructure.
Bangladesh is currently receiving various process equipment for the construction and further operation of the RNPP including the RPV and steam generator after building a dedicated freight water terminal at the nearby Padma river.
To ensure timely implementation of the RNPP, Bangladesh continued construction work even during the lockdown period of the coronavirus pandemic.
The plant will have two power units, each with a capacity of 1,200 MW. Each unit will be a generation 3+ Russian VVER-1200.
The construction of RNPP is based on the Russia-Bangladesh Intergovernmental Agreement on cooperation in nuclear power plant construction, signed on November 2, 2011.
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