This year is set to be pivotal for Bangladesh as the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will begin supplying electricity to the national power grid. Here is our look back at the key events of the past 2024 that brought the country’s first nuclear power plant closer to commissioning.
The first quarter of 2024 saw a number of key construction operations completed at the Rooppur site. In late January, workers installed outer and inner sections of the passive heat removal system (PHRS) deflector. This operation is extremely difficult as the 135‑tonne and 80‑tonne sections need to be installed with the maximum permitted deviation of 10 mm. The deflector is designed to increase draft in the ventilation channel and make the ventilation more effective.
Also in late January, workers finished concreting the outer containment shell at Rooppur Unit 2. The entire process took 122 days to complete. The outer containment is a leak-tight safety structure made of reinforced concrete. It protects the reactor from external impacts and can withstand an earthquake, tsunami or hurricane.
The spring and summer were also full of events for Rooppur. In early May, Rosatom manufactured and shipped high- and low-pressure wedge-gate and swing-check valves to Rooppur. The shipment included 294 pieces of equipment with a total weight of 312 tonnes. The valves will be used in the reactor buildings and turbine halls of Rooppur Unit 1 and 2.
In late June, Rooppur Unit 1 engineers completed a pre-licensing training program at the nuclear plant’s training center. The training program for the locals is divided into several stages. Bengali students first have theory classes in the Rosatom Technical Academy in Russia and then practice their skills on simulators. After that, they are interned at the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant, which was chosen as a reference station for the Rooppur personnel to be trained there. Having completed their training program in Russia, the Rooppur employees return home to spend six months practicing in their on-site training center and then start a pre-license training course.
In late August, a containment airlock for the second power unit was delivered to the Rooppur construction site. Its primary function is to hold radioactive substances inside the containment area and provide fire protection. When the nuclear power plant is in normal operation, the airlock serves as a gate for the delivery of maintenance parts and materials and fresh nuclear fuel and removal of spent fuel.
In mid-September, engineers proceeded with the loading of dummy fuel assemblies at Unit 1. Dummies replicate the design of standard fuel assemblies in size, weight and materials, but contain no nuclear fuel. They serve to simulate the geometry of the reactor core for the purpose of verifying hydraulic parameters of the reactor plant during the primary circuit flushing, cold and hot functional tests. They are also necessary to check the operation of the fuel handling machine.
In October, workers finished assembling the reactor, having installed reactor internals, a core barrel and a core baffle, loaded dummy fuel assemblies, and mounted a protective tube unit, an RPV head, and sensors needed for pre-commissioning measurements.
In early November, an auxiliary boiler was put in operation at the Rooppur site to supply process steam for in-house needs. The steam produced by the boiler is used during the construction phase to carry out the most important pre-commissioning works, such as hot functional tests on the reactor unit and trial vacuum buildup in the turbine condenser. During the operation phase, the boiler is needed for doing preventive maintenance, supplies hot water to on-site facilities, and also ensures safe operation of the power unit in case of an emergency reactor shutdown.
Finally, in late December, all construction and installation works were completed at the first unit of the plant. Engineers went on with full-scale functional tests.
“We have entered the home stretch of preparing Rooppur Unit 1 for going critical. This is an important stage for us to carry out extensive tests to prove the operability of all plant systems in every operating mode,” said Andrey Petrov, First Deputy Director General for Nuclear Power Engineering at Rosatom and President of AtomStroyExport (ASE).
After reaching the design capacity, the two units of the Rooppur NPP will supply about 10 % of electricity consumed in Bangladesh. Dependence on coal and gas generation will be reduced, thus optimizing the national energy mix.
