January 30, 2019 saw the completion of concrete works for the Unit No. 1 of Rooppur NPP (Bangladesh) turbine hall foundation slab. The slab structure received 3813 tonnes of rebars and 24,285 cubic meters of concrete. This will be followed by wall erection works for the Unit No. 1 reactor building and auxiliary reactor compartment. Specialists employed at the construction site for the first NPP of Bangladesh have commenced the preparations for this scope. These works have been fulfilled in cooperation with leading specialized European and Bangladeshi companies under the management of ASE (Engineering Division of ROSATOM).
The previous day, January 29, witnessed the completion of in-situ soil stabilization operations using the deep mixing method under main and auxiliary buildings and structures of the Rooppur NPP construction site. Over 1.2m tonnes of cement was utilized to strengthen 4.5m cubic meters of soil.
As stressed by the Vice-President, Director of the Rooppur NPP Construction Project, Mr. Sergey Lastochkin, completion of this type of works securely ensures that the foundation soils at the Rooppur NPP construction site meet the design requirements for a load-carrying capacity.
Construction works for the Rooppur NPP proceed as per schedule.
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The Rooppur NPP to be powered by two VVER-1200 reactors with a total capacity of 2400 MW is constructed under the Russian design 160 km off the city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, in accordance with the General Contract dated December 25, 2015. Atomstroyexport (Rosatom Engineering Division) acts as the General Contractor for the Rooppur NPP construction. The Russian design using VVER-1200 reactors was chosen for the first NPP of Bangladesh as it had been successfully implemented at Power Unit No. 1 of the Novovoronezh-2 NPP. This is an evolutionary generation III+ design that fully conforms to the international safety requirements. The new Russian Power Unit was rated among top three best nuclear power units in the world in 2017 according to the influential POWER Magazine (USA). Site preparations took place in 2015-2016, detailed design documents were also developed at that time, as well as justification materials to obtain Units siting and construction licenses. The Rooppur NPP construction project continued to be implemented in 2017 as scheduled. The regulatory authority of Bangladesh (BAERA) issued a license for designing and constructing the NPP on November 4, 2017. The official ceremony of pouring the first batch of concrete for the Rooppur NPP Unit No. 1 foundation was held on November 30, 2017 whereas an active stage of constructing the Rooppur NPP’s Unit No. 2 started on July 14, 2018 with the official ceremony of making the first concrete pour for the Unit’s foundation. Core meltdown retention device (core catcher) installation works started at Unit No. 1 on August 20, 2018. Each stage of constructing the Rooppur NPP in Bangladesh is closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and by the national regulatory authority.
ASE (Engineering Division of ROSATOM) was established by merging the leading companies of the industry: JSC ASE EC, JSC Atomstroyexport, JSC Atomenergoproekt and JSC ATOMPROEKT. ASE is one of the global leaders in the nuclear power engineering business holding 31% of the global NPP construction market. Its representative offices, branches and front offices are operating in the territories of 15 countries. Almost 80% of the order portfolio is composed of overseas projects. It implements design and construction projects for high-power NPPs, RAW and SNF management facilities, thermal power facilities, and renders a full range of EPC, EPC(M) and PMC services for any complex engineering facilities. ASE is a developer and active promoter of the innovative Multi-D project management system in the field of complex engineering facilities construction that allows more efficient management of such parameters as budget, deadlines and quality.
