In the latest development, a total of eight exchangers of Passive Heat Removal System (PHRS) have been installed at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP), the country’s biggest and first ever Nuclear power plant.
Describing the functioning of the PHRC exchanger, officials concerned said that 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.
The PHRS exchangers were installed on Thursday, just the day after Bangladesh and Russian authorities signed the final acceptance protocol agreement on receiving the 'Initial Batch Fresh Nuclear Fuel' for the RNPP on Wednesday in Siberia.
The World Nuclear New in one of its reports on Thursday said that the Rosatom announced that eight heat exchangers have been installed at the RNPP and each of the eight metal structures is weighing over 32 tonnes.
Alexey Deriy, ASE Vice President and director of the Rooppur construction project, said, "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."
"Implementation of Rooppur NPP construction project is going on just as planned," said Alexey Deriy.
He also 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."
The World Nuclear New report further said that the first fuel for RNPP’s initial load has been formally accepted by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) after an inspection at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (NCCP) in Russia.
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 Atom Story Export (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 – have already been signed. 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 RNPP, 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 RNPP 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."
Construction of 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.