A nuclear reactor or nuclear reactor pressure vessel sits at the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Ishwardi, Pabna, on Sunday (October 10). It is also called the heart of a nuclear power plant.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the event via video conference at 11am, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Alexei Likhachev, one of the chief executives of the Russian state-owned Rosatom, the contractor for the project, is expected to attend the event.
Ishwardi Upazila Nirbahi Officer PM Imrul Kayes said the reactor pressure vessel for the first unit at Rooppur Center reached the country in October last year after crossing 14,000 km by water from Russia. Various infrastructures required for one year are prepared for its installation.
Reactor pressure vessels are the most important part of a nuclear power plant where the main fuel is kept.
According to Rosatom, the nuclear reactor weighs 333.6 tons. The reactor reached Mongla via the Black Sea and the Suez Canal. From there it was taken by river ways to Rooppur in Pabna.
Although efforts were made to build it during the Pakistan period, there was no real progress. After the independence of the country, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took the initiative to set up a 200 MW nuclear power plant here in the context of that time. This project did not go ahead after Bangabandhu and his family were brutally killed.
In its 2008 election manifesto, the Awami League pledged to implement the project. In 2010, a framework agreement was reached with Russia on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. In the same year, the Jatiyo Sangsad passed a resolution proposing the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. In 2012, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Act was passed. In 2013, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the first phase of work of the power plant. Then step by step the project is now going to see the light of day.