Two bridge cranes have been installed in the turbine compartment of Unit-2 of Rooppur Nuclear Power Project.

According to Rosatom, the Russian contractor of the project, the cranes will be used for construction and installation works, and for NPP reconstruction, repair, and upgrade during operations.

A branch of Rosatom Engineering Division- VdMU did the installation of cranes having a lifting capacity of 50 and 180 tons.

Weights of the cranes with additional equipment were about 130 and 210 tons respectively. The heaviest and largest components were installed in the design position using the Liebherr 11350 crane with a lifting capacity of 1350 tons.

“Installation of bridge cranes is a complex technological process involving more than a hundred operations”, said Alexey Deriy, ASE Vice President and Director for Rooppur NPP construction project.

“Its successful completion allows proceeding to the next construction stage, which is the installation of the turbine compartment equipment, in particular, the main and auxiliary equipment of the turbine set”, he added.

Rooppur NPP will be equipped with two Russian 3+ generation VVER-1200 reactors of a total of 2,400 MW.

This type of reactor meets all the international safety requirements. The engineering division of Russia’s Rosatom State Corporation is the designer and general contractor of the project.

According to Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, the implementing authority of the RNPP, the first unit of the power plant was scheduled to start operation in 2022 and second one in 2024.

But recently the first unit's operation was rescheduled to 2024 and second unit to 2025.