The country’s first 2400 megawatt-capacity Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is becoming more visible with each passing day.
Petrozavodsk Branch of JSC “AEM-technology” (a part of machine-building division of Rosatom State Corporation – Atomenergomash and a Karelian regional branch of the Russian Engineering Union) has completed assembling the first body of the reactor coolant pump set (RCPS) from the set of RCPS bodies for Unit 2 of Rooppur NPP.
The construction project is being implemented by a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom. It is high on the Bangladesh government’s agenda, all the way up to the Prime Minister’s Office. The first unit will be commissioned in 2023, and the second in 2024, an official said.
Rosatom officials said upon completion of assembly and welding operations the item passed heat treatment to relieve residual stresses after welding. Herewith the RCPS body is heated up to temperature exceeding 600 degrees and held for several hours in accordance with guidelines set forth in the process instruction. After every heat treatment condition all welds are inspected by dye-penetrant testing and subjected to ultrasonic testing. After that the RCPS body will be forwarded to machining.
The RCPS body is the first safety class item. The reactor coolant pump set at the nuclear power plant provides coolant circulation in the primary circuit and operates under pressure about 160 MPa and at a temperature 300 °С. The equipment of one power unit reactor plant includes four RCP sets.
Rooppur NPP is being designed and constructed under the Russian project. Designing and construction of the plant is performed by the Engineering Division of Rosatom State Corporation. The plant is going to consist of two power units equipped with two VVER-1200 reactors the life cycle of which comprises 60 years with an option to extend the service life for another 20 years. Power capacity of every unit will be 1200 MW. The company “AEM-technology” manufactures basic equipment of the reactor hall for two power units of the plant.
Construction of the Rooppur nuclear power project official said that the power plant is being built in Rooppur of Pabna, about 160 kilometres northwest of the capital.
Under the General Contract signed on December 25, 2015 ASE (Atomstroyexport), Engineering Division of Rosatom State Corporation of Russia is implementing the project.
“The design of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been developed in such a way that it will not succumb to any accident – natural or man-made. One of the main concerns of any nuclear power plant is its waste management. The Russian Federation will take back spent nuclear fuel from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and we have signed a deal in this regard with them,”an official said.
On 2 October 2013, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the first stone in the foundation of Rooppur NPP.
