Rooppur fuel passes inspection as onsite work progresses

NCCP is an enterprise of TVEL, the fuel division of the Rosatom state corporation, and the fuel acceptance inspection was attended by representatives from TVEL as well as AtomStroyExport (ASE).

The final protocol and licences that will allow BAEC to take delivery of the fuel for the 1200 MWe VVER pressurised water reactor - one of two being built at the site 160 kilometres from Dhaka - were signed earlier this year. Delivery of the fuel is expected to take place in September. Similar fuel is already operating in VVER-1200 reactors at the Leningrad, Novovoronezh and Belarus (Ostrovets) nuclear power plants.

TVEL Quality Director Alexander Bukhvalov said the company has produced an "advanced and efficient" nuclear fuel for Rooppur, taking customer preferences into account throughout the process from pre-production to fuel manufacturing and supply to the power plant. "I am positive that our fuel will once again prove the highest quality and reliability level of Russian nuclear technologies," he said.

"Implementation of Rooppur NPP construction project is going just as planned," Alexey Deriy, ASE Vice President and director of the Rooppur construction project, said. "Rosatom Engineering Division is fulfilling its obligations in the full scope and, by the time of nuclear fuel arrival, the construction site of unit 1 will be ready to accept it and ensure storage, meeting all the safety requirements prior to the stage of loading into the reactor."

Heat exchangers in place

Separately, Rosatom announced that eight heat exchangers had been installed at Rooppur. The eight metal structures - each weighing over 32 tonnes - are part of the plant's passive heat removal system (PHRS).

The heat exchangers were lifted into position at Rooppur (Image: Rosatom)

"When the system is operational, atmospheric air enters the PHRS heat exchanger which cools it down at one side, while the steam from the steam generator condenses inside the heat exchanging tubes," Deriy said.

Construction of Rooppur 1, Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant, began in November 2017 under a general contract signed in December 2015. The unit is scheduled to be commissioned in 2024. Construction of the second unit at Rooppur began in July 2018.