Reactor assembly has been completed for unit 1 of the Rooppur NPP under construction in Bangladesh. The assembly process included installation of reactor internals, such as a shaft and a baffle, loading of fuel assembly simulators, installing of a protective pipes unit and an upper unit, SAMS sensors. Hydraulic testing is to be conducted at the next stage, to check operability of the reactor plant equipment.
“Completion of the reactor assembly and preparing for key tests is an important stage to ensure the efficient operation of the future power unit, said Alexey Deriy, Atomstroyexport JSC Vice President for Projects in Bangladesh. “We are responsible for the safe, uninterrupted and reliable operation of the nuclear power plant being constructed, that is why we monitor carefully each stage of the work, build up our competencies permanently and use advanced methods and technologies that have been tested many times at our construction sites. And finally, this will contribute to sustainable and prosperous energy future for Bangladesh.”
The Rooppur plant is being built by Rosatom on the eastern bank of the Ganges River in Bangladesh’s Pabna district about 160 km northwest of the capital city of Dhaka. It will comprise two VVER-1200 reactors. In November 2011, Russia and Bangladesh signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of the NPP and in mid-December 2015, a general contract was signed. The general contractor is Atomstroyexport (an enterprise of Rosatom).
In early 2017, the Russian government provided Bangladesh with a state loan of $11.38bn to finance the main stage of the NPP construction, which began in 2021. Dummy fuel assemblies – exact replicas of standard fuel assemblies but without nuclear fuel – were loaded into unit 1 in September. Nuclear fuel, which was delivered to the site last year, will only be loaded after the tests with the dummy fuel assemblies have been successfully carried out.
