RNPP won’t get fuel supply until all necessary inspections completed: Russian contractor

Russian contractor of Rooppur Nuclear Power Project said that it will not supply fuel to the plant until all necessary inspections and scheduled procedures are completed.

“It (plant) should meet all international safety standards. The fuel will not be shipped and delivered to the Rooppur NPP until all necessary inspections and scheduled procedures have been completed,” Alexey Deriy, Atomstroyexport Vice President and Director of Rooppur NPP Construction Project said.

Terming the delivery of nuclear fuel to the nuclear power plant as a complex multi-level process he further informed that the acceptance inspection will be held in Novosibirsk Russia in the near future, said a press release of Rosatom, the Russian contractor of the Rooppur NPP.

Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority (BAERA) recently issued the Class B, D, and E licenses to the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) for handling, storage, and transportation of nuclear fuel for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

Class B license authorizes the purchase, ownership, handling, and storage of nuclear materials, class D license allows a Russian transport company to transport nuclear materials, while class E provides for the authority of nuclear materials import.

The official ceremony held in Pabna to hand over the licenses was attended by Architect Yeafesh Osman, Minister for Science and Technology; Ziaul Hasan, Sr. Secretary, MoST; Engr. Md. Muzammel Haque, Chairman, BAERA; Alexey Ferapontov, Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor), Russia, Andrei Petrov, First Deputy Director General for Nuclear Power of the Rosatom State Corporation and President, ASE.

Rooppur NPP equipped with two VVER-1200 reactors with a total capacity of 2400 MW is being constructed under the Russian design. VVER 1200 is an evolutionary generation III+ design that fully complies with all the international safety requirements.

The Engineering Division of Rosatom State Corporation is implementing the project as the General Contractor.

According to Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), the 2400 MW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project, with two units, was undertaken in 2010.

A target was set by the government to complete the construction of the first unit in 2022 and second unit in 2023.

But later the target was reset, and the first unit was to be completed by June 2024 and second unit by June 2025.