Bangladesh issues construction licence for Rooppur unit 2

The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) has formally received a design and construction licence for Rooppur unit 2. It received an equivalent licence for unit 1 in November last year and construction work started on that unit soon afterwards.

The licence for Rooppur unit 2 has been issued (Image: Rosatom)

ASE Group, the engineering subsidiary of Russia's Rosatom, announced issuance of the licence to BAEC by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority for unit 2 yesterday. The document confirms safety requirements for the project have been met and gives permission to commence construction of the second power unit, according to the ASE statement.

Valery Limarenko, the head of ASE Group, said: "JSC ASE Engineering Company as the general contractor is meeting all its obligations related to the construction of the Rooppur NPP. Construction of the first power unit is under way, and in July 2018 we plan to start pouring the first concrete for power unit 2."

At unit 1, work has started on building the walls of the reactor building, their reinforcement, and laying the foundation slab of the auxiliary reactor building, as well as soil stabilisation work for the cooling tower.

The Rooppur NPP project is based on a Russia-Bangladesh inter-governmental agreement signed on 2 November 2011 and ASE Group was appointed general contractor for the project on 25 December 2015. The project includes two 1200 MWe VVER-1200 reactors at the site, which is 160 km from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and situated on the eastern bank of the river of Ganges.

The reactor design is the same as that used for Novovoronezh II, the first VVER-1200 unit, which was connected to the Russian grid in August 2016.

Researched and writtenby World Nuclear News