There is no reason for alarm or confusion over a technical deviation detected during the commissioning, or test operation, of the first unit of the Rooppur nuclear power plant, the plant’s operator, Nuclear Power Company Bangladesh Limited (NPCBL), has said.
According to the company, detecting and correcting such minor faults before commercial generation begins is a normal and mandatory part of the commissioning process.
Concern had spread among the public after claims circulated recently on social media and in some media outlets that the Rooppur nuclear plant had shut down because of a serious technical fault even before it began operating. NPCBL Managing Director Dr. Zahedul Hasan rejected those claims as misleading and detached from reality.
Speaking to the media on Monday (June 15), he said, “Safety is our highest priority. There is no scope for any compromise on this. Distorted and misleading information being spread by some quarters is needlessly creating public anxiety that bears no resemblance to the actual situation.”
Dr. Zahedul Hasan said that, before the plant goes into commercial generation, multiple safety and performance tests are carried out to international standards under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority. Detecting a slight deviation in such tests, he said, is in fact proof that the safety system is working.
He said, “The leak-tightness test, conducted at a pressure of 8.1 megapascals (MPa) in the secondary circuit, is a mandatory and routine test carried out every time the plant moves from a shutdown state to an operational state. It is an internationally recognized, standard procedure in the nuclear and power-generation industry.”
According to him, a technical deviation was detected during the test relative to the set acceptance criteria. As part of the organization’s strict safety culture, he said, even the smallest deviation is taken seriously, and is not cleared without the necessary corrective measures being taken.
He said, “The very detection of this deviation proves that the project’s safety and quality-assurance systems are working properly.”
Shafiqul Islam, a Dhaka University professor and nuclear scientist, said of the matter, “It is not unusual for such minor technical issues to be detected during fuel loading or commissioning. A plant has to be shut down only if there is a major safety risk. The current situation is not of that kind, and there is no reason to present it negatively.”
Science and Technology Minister Fakir Mahbub Anam said ensuring the safety of the power plant is the government’s highest priority. About US$1 billion has been invested in safety systems to make the Rooppur project capable of withstanding natural disasters such as a magnitude-8 earthquake and a tsunami, he said.
He added that, building on the successful implementation of the first project, there are plans to install two more new units at Rooppur. In the long term, nuclear power will help ensure the country’s energy security and will be more cost-effective than many other energy sources, he said.
According to project sources, the two units of the Rooppur nuclear power plant have a combined generation capacity of 2,400 megawatts. Fuel loading in the first unit was completed on April 28, and commissioning is now under way. Construction and preparatory work on the second unit is also progressing rapidly.
Under the plan, about 1,100 megawatts of power is to be added to the national grid from the first unit in January 2027. Fuel loading in the second unit will begin in June of the same year, and by September it may be possible to supply about 2,200 megawatts to the national grid from the two units combined.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report