AEM-Technology, part of Rosatom machine-building division – JSC “Atomenergomash, has announced the shipment of the first key elements of the nuclear island of the first Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP), the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh's history.

Rosatom is the Russian state nuclear energy working as contractor of 2400MW RNPP under a state to state deal.

A VVER-1200 reactor and a steam generator, manufactured at the “Atommash” plant in Volgodonsk, the largest nuclear engineering production site in Russia, were shipped to the NPP construction site, said a press release on Thursday.

The Rooppur NPP consists of two units with a capacity of 1200 MW each and will be put into operation according to the following schedule: the first unit will start working in 2023, and the second one in 2024.

General Director of JSC “Atomenergomash” Andrei Nikipelov said: “Manufacturing equipment with high quality and in time is one of our main priorities. In addition to that, 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. Further, our equipment has a long way to go - it will travel another 14 thousand kilometers by sea to be at the construction site of the first nuclear power plant in Bangladesh by the end of this year.”

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 (the weight of the reactor vessel is 333.6 tons, the steam generator - 340 tons) 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.

In total for two power units of the Rooppur NPP, 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. In total during 2018-2022 over 13,000 tons of unique equipment will be manufactured and shipped.