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Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant

Ship carrying second unit’s reactor leaves Russia for Bangladesh


Published : 21 Apr 2021 09:48 PM | Updated : 22 Apr 2021 01:20 AM

The Volgodonsk Branch of AEM-technology, has started shipping the equipment of reactor plant from Russia for the second unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) in the country, official said.

The country’s first nuclear power plant is being implemented in Rooppur of Pabna district by a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom. The Volgodonsk Branch of AEM-technology is a part of the mechanical engineering division of Rosatom – Atomenergomash

It is a top priority project on the Bangladesh government’s agenda, all the way up to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Rosatom official said recently, the ship carrying the reactor left Russia for Bangladesh. It will take about 5-6 months to reach Bangladesh after covering a distance of about 14,000 kilometers.

“The nuclear reactor manufacture took two years The manufacturing process includes 768 operations and 143 control points. The plant's specialists carried out the whole range of testing, including hydraulic test of the vessel with the standard cover of the upper unit. During the test, the maximum pressure (24.5 MPa), which is 1.4 times higher than the operating pressure, was created inside the reactor,” an official said.

The final stage of the equipment manufacturing is test assembly with the internals. The core barrel, core baffle, and the protective tube unit were installed into the reactor vessel in the design position. The plant's specialists, together with the customer's representatives, performed the necessary inspection operations. As a result, all geometric parameters, alignment of the components were checked and the quality of the manufactured item was confirmed.

The reactor weighing 320 tons, 12 meters long, and two 340-ton steam generators, 14 meters long, will be brought to the plant's special berth and loaded onto a barge. The equipment will be delivered to Novorossiysk by water, then the item will be sent to the Republic of Bangladesh by sea. The sea route will be about 14,000 km.

Director General of JSC “AEM-technology” Igor Kotov, commenting on the shipment, noted: “Rooppur NPP is the first nuclear facility for Bangladesh, and in the process of work we were very attentive to any questions and requests from our Bengalese partners. It is thanks to the trust and effective interaction with the customers that today, in strict compliance with all the contractual obligations, we are shipping the key equipment for the second unit of the NPP.

To date, this is the last shipment of such a volume for Bangladesh, but I am sure that our fruitful cooperation with the representatives of the Republic, which is taking the first steps in the nuclear power industry, will continue in one form or another. ”