Russia has shipped the first reactor vessel and steam generator for the first unit of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant having the capacity to generate around 1,200 MW of electricity.
"It's a very good step towards construction of our dream project having a total capacity of 2,400 MW," Science and Technology minister Yeafesh Osman told the FE on Thursday.
He expected that the project will be completed in time as the plant work has not been paused for a single day despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Some 10,000 people are engaged in constructing the Rooppur NPP project maintaining the health and safety standard.
The reactor is expected to reach Bangladesh by late September or early October, said project director Shawkat Akbar.
A VVER-1200 reactor and a steam generator, manufactured at Russia's Atommash plant in Volgodonsk, the largest nuclear engineering production site in Russia, were shipped to the Rooppur NPP construction site, Russian firm Rosatom said in a statement on Thursday.
The AEM-Technology, part of Rosatom machine-building division - JSC "Atomenergomash, announced the shipment of the first key elements of the nuclear island to Rooppur NPP unit.
"Manufacturing equipment with high quality and in time is one of our main priorities. Despite a number of restrictions due to the coronavirus, we managed to ship the first reactor vessel for the Rooppur NPP according to the contractual obligations," General Director of JSC Atomenergomash Andrei Nikipelov said.
"Our equipment has a long way to go - it will travel another 14 thousand kilometres by sea to be at the construction site of the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh by the end of this year," he said.
Nuclear power plants on the base of the VVER-1200 reactor are characterized by an unprecedented level of safety, which allows them to be classified as generation "3+".
This has been achieved by the introduction of new 'passive safety systems,' which are able to function without operator intervention even when the station is completely de-energized.
The life cycle of the reactors is 60 years with the possibility of further extension.
The transportation of massive equipment having the total weight of 673.6 tonnes, of which reactor vessel is of 333.6 tonnes and the steam generator is of 340 tonnes, is a complex logistic operation.
From the Atommash site, the reactor vessel and the steam generator were separately transported by special automotive equipment to the pier of the Tsimlyansk water reservoir in Volgodonsk, in order to then sail to Novorossiysk, and from there - via the Black Sea and the Suez Canal - to the construction site - to Bangladesh.
JSC Atomenergomash will manufacture over 14 types of equipment, including equipment for the reactor building: reactor vessels, sets of steam generators, main circulation pipelines, main circulation pumps, pressure compensation system equipment, emergency cooling systems and passive protection of the core, etc., as well as equipment for the turbine hall building: high-pressure heaters, vacuum, condensate and feed pumps, equipment for separation systems and reheating of the turbine unit for the two 1200 capacity Rooppur NPP units each.
During 2018-22, over 13,000 tonnes of unique equipment will be manufactured and shipped, the statement added.
The Rooppur NPP is designed and built according to the Russian project.
The plant will have two power units each with a capacity of 1,200 MW. Each unit will host a generation 3+ VVER-1200.
AEM-technology is a part of Atomenergomash, engineering division of the Russia's state atomic energy corporation-Rosatom.
The Rooppur plant is being built under a supplier's credit deal with Russia.
The Russian Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs and Bangladesh's state-owned Sonali Bank Ltd. Are working as the authorized banks for the state loan.
The Bangladesh government will also provide Tk 220.52 billion of its own funding for the project.
Atomenergomash, the engineering division of Rosatom and parent company of AEM Technology, is a single source supplier of all equipment of the reactor compartment of the Rooppur NPP.
A different division of Rosatom is manufacturing the reactors, steam generators, pumping and heat exchange equipment.
The expected commissioning of Rooppur-1 is 2023.
Azizjst@yahoo.com