Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and Bangladesh's Science and Technology Minister Yafes Osman on 30 August signed the collaboration agreement in Moscow detailing the provisions to reprocess used Russian nuclear fuel that will be supplied to the Rooppur NPP.
Russia's ASE Group of Companies is the general contractor for the Rooppur project, which will cost BDT1,130bn ($12.65bn), with Russian supplier credit of $11.38bn.
The first of the two Rooppur units is expected to go into operation in 2023 and the second in 2024. Construction is due to begin in the second half of 2017. “Rooppur NPP will be equipped with two Russian VVER reactors, each with a minimum capacity of 1200MWe. The VVER-1200 offered by Rosatom is a modern generation 3+ project which meets all post-Fukushima safety standards and international rules,” Likhachev said.
In a 1200MWe reactor with a 12-month fuel cycle, 42 fuel assemblies are taken out every year for replacement. Each assembly contains 534kg of nuclear fuel, which means the reactor will produce around 22.5t of used fuel a year.
