The concreting of the outer containment building of unit 1 of the first nuclear power plant (NPP) in Bangladesh located at Rooppur has been completed in 110 days, 45 days ahead of schedule, the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom announced earlier this month.
Rosatom, the equipment supplier and technical consultant for the project, is building two VVER-1200 units of 1,200 MW capacity each at Rooppur, located on the eastern bank of the river Padma, about 160 km from the Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
A Rosatom statement said the time savings were the results of implementing suggestions for “process improvements such as the use of double formwork panels and manufacturing of double-concave formwork panels prior to installation”.
A total of 1,383 cubic metres of concrete were used in the dome portion of the structure, the statement said. In all, 65 specialists took part in the pouring, 44 of whom were local personnel.
The completion ahead of schedule allowed the inner and outer parts of the steel structures of the passive heat removal system deflector to be installed in the design position ahead of schedule. Those two structures weigh 140 and 110 tonnes each, respectively, while the complexity of the operation requires these to be positioned with a precision of 10 mm, the statement added.
“This operation allowed installation of the deflector ahead of schedule and opened the possibility for installation of heat exchangers, heat exchanging module casings and PHRS (passive heat removal system) air ducts,” Rooppur NPP construction project Director, Alexey Deriy, said.
Earlier this month, the transport lock, to be used for loading and unloading fuel and delivering some other equipment, was installed in the reactor building of unit 1. Installation of the transport lock in the design position is a key stage in the completion of civil works in the reactor compartment building. In late November 2022, workers finished the installation of steel structures for the external containment dome at the reactor building of unit 1.
Both the latest generation III+ 1,200 MW power units at Rooppur will be equipped with active as well as passive safety systems, including molten core catchers. The construction of the first unit is expected to be completed in 2023, followed by unit 2 in 2024.
