To prepare a skilled workforce for the safe operations of the country’s first-ever nuclear power plant, a training programme for Bangladeshi specialists began on October 16 at the Rooppur NPP Training Centre.
Minister for Science and Technology Architect Yeafesh Osman, and Rosatom Director General Alexy Likhachev formally inaugurated the centre at the Rooppur NPP site at a simple ceremony held on October 19.
According to Rosatom, the Russian contractor of the Rooppur NPP, presently two groups of Bangladeshi specialists are undergoing training programmes and a total of more than 50 groups are planned to be trained at the centre.
Approximately 686 personnel have already been trained at Rosatom Technical Academy based at Novovoronezh NPP, which is the reference project of Rooppur NPP.
According to the General Contract, Russia will provide training to 1,119 Bangladeshi specialists in several phases.
Besides, Russia will train another 305 people as a reserve force. 850 Bangladeshi specialists are to be trained in Russia and the rest at the Rooppur NPP Training Centre by Russian instructors.
Each training programme for the specialists is of approximately 4 to 12 months. Each programme consists of several courses of two to six weeks in duration.
Courses include theoretical and practical parts as well as on-job training at Rooppur NPP. The training is conducted by specialists from Novovoronezh NPP.
The Rooppur NPP Training Centre is now ready for simulator training for the specialists.
Rooppur NPP Training Centre is headed by Bangladeshi specialist Md Golam Shahinoor Islam. He successfully completed training at the Rosatom Technical Academy in 2018-2019.
Rooppur NPP will have two power units, each of 1,200MW capacity. The project will require over 1,100 specialists for its operations.
The first unit is schemed to start operation in 2024 and second unit in 2025.
