Rooppur power plant: Incomplete power line delays test run

The test run of the Rooppur nuclear power plant may start by the end of 2025 after a year's delay as the gridline on the Padma river is taking longer than anticipated to materialise.

Initially, the Awami League-led government had planned to conduct the test run of the 1,200 MW unit-1 by December last year.

Earlier in January, Finance and Science and Technology Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed told The Daily Star that ROSATOM had conveyed to the government that they were trying to conduct the test run by April.

When Alexey Likhachev, the director general of ROSATOM last week paid a visit to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, he could not say anything specific about the test run.

"The dry run of the project is going on while the test run will commence soon," Likhachev said.

While 85 percent of the construction work for unit-1 has already been completed, the subsidiary projects, which included developing a high-frequency telecommunications system and setting up gridlines over the Padma and the Jamuna rivers, are taking longer than expected, Ahmed said.

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Further uncertainty over Rooppur plant launch

While completion of the gridline over the Jamuna river will take time, the government was trying to complete the gridline over the Padma river soon.

The test run will commence once the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is the global watchdog for any atomic energy-related power plant, visits the project site and certify it, Ahmed added.

The gridline on the Padma river will take some time, said Md Delwar Hossain, the chief engineer of the Rooppur power plant project.

As of January, the physical progress of the gridline on Padma river is 85 percent, according to Hossain.

However, apart from those under construction, there are two completed gridlines that could be used for the test turn.

One is from Rooppur to Baghabari and the other is from Rooppur to Bogura.

However, Russia emphasised using the Padma river gridline for the test run, Hossain added.

The project for the gridlines on the Padma and Jamuna rivers was approved in 2018 by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council for completion by December 2024.

As of February, the overall physical progress of the project is 44 percent and the financial progress is 33 percent.

On the other hand, the physical progress of the gridline on Jamuna river is 50 percent as of February, according to project officials.

The construction work for the transmission line through the Padma and Jamuna rivers for the Rooppur nuclear power plant started later than scheduled as its Indian contractor left the country following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5 last year.

A total of 669 kilometres of the gridline, including 16 kilometres of river crossing line in both Padma and Jamuna, is needed for power transmission to the national grid from the country's first nuclear power plant, according to the Power Grid Company Bangladesh.

However, project officials said they have resumed work and they are hopeful of completing the gridline's work soon.

The physical work of unit-1 is almost complete but the gridline work is yet to be ready, said Zahedul Hasan, project director of the Rooppur nuclear power plant.

As a result, the technical tests through the power supply in the unit cannot be done.

At least two months is needed to complete all tests.

After completing the tests, fuel needs to be loaded in the reactor building, which will take another three months.

"After completing the gridline work, we need five to six months to reach the 'Change Reaction' step for starting up unit-1."

A top official of the IAEA will come to Bangladesh on March 7 to check the preparations.

"After IAEA's observation we will go for the next step," Hasan said.

The 2,400MW power plant is being built in Rooppur, Pabna for $12.65 billion.

According to the original project proposal, unit-1 would be in operation on December 23, 2022, unit-2 on October 8, 2023 and the entire project would be completed by December 31, 2025.

The construction of unit-1 formally started on November 30, 2017 and unit-2 on July 14, 2018.