Work on pre-assembly outer containment dome of unit-1 has started at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) project, which is scheduled for installation in October, an official said.
Assembly and subsequent erection and concreting work are being performed by specialists of Trest RosSEM, a subsidiary of Rosatom Engineering Division of Russia.
The construction work of the country's first nuclear power plant is going on in full swing at Rooppur in Pabna district, with the support of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom. The total capacity of the plant is estimated at 2,400 MW. The government believes at least 1,200MW unit of electricity from the first nuclear plant will be added to the national grid by 2023. The second one with the same amount of power will be launched by 2024.
Originally, the first unit of the power plant was scheduled to open by 2024 and the second one by 2025.
“Installation of the outer containment dome is the final stage of civil work in construction of the power unit. It opens up a possibility for construction of structures and equipment of the passive heat removal systems and marks an important step for the beginning of physical start-up”, said Alexey Deriy, Vice President of ASE and Project Director for Rooppur NPP Construction.
The outer containment dome consists of two parts: lower and upper one, which was dubbed as the Skirt and the Headpiece by construction workers. The lower part consists of 12 individual segments, the total weight of each being 18 tonnes including reinforcements, while the dome part consists of 17 of such segments. The entire dome will be completely assembled on the ground, followed by installation of its lower part at an elevation of +48.880 m. After its alignment and fixing, the upper part will be installed at an elevation of +57.140 m. Upon completion of installation of both the parts, the outer containment dome will be concreted.
The stage of outer containment dome preparation, assembly, installation and concreting is one of the longest works in the construction of a power unit and it amounts to 1,151 days. In order to reduce time for completion of this stage, RPS project (Optimization of 10UJA outer containment dome structures erection from elevation +16.450 to elevation +64.500 at Rooppur NPP) has been undertaken. The targeted duration of work under the project will be reduced to 584 days only.
The main construction work of the power plant is continuing at Rooppur, while at the same time, essential machinery is being made in Russia. Some of the machinery has already reached Bangladesh, some shipped and others are still in the manufacturing process.
The design of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been developed in such a way that it will not succumb to any accident --either natural or man-made. One of the main concerns of any nuclear power plant is its waste management. The Russian Federation will take back all spent nuclear fuel of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, and they have signed a deal in this regard, an official said.
