Passive heat removal system installed at Rooppur nuclear power plant Unit 1

The installation of eight heat exchangers of the Passive Heat Removal System (PHRS) has been completed in Unit 1 of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the country's first-ever nuclear plant being built by Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom.

Each heat exchanger, a metal structure weighing over 32 tonnes, has a length of 8,530 metres and a width of 5,904 metres, reads a statement recently issued by the Communications Division of Rosatom Engineering Division.

The PHRS is a passive safety system that ensures the long-term removal of heat from the reactor core into the atmosphere in the absence of all sources of power supply.

"When the system is operational, atmospheric air enters the PHRS heat exchanger which cools it down at one side, while the steam from the steam generator condenses inside the heat exchanging tubes", explained Alexey Deriy, the vice president of Rosatom Engineering Division and director for Rooppur NPP Construction Project.

This followed the installation in July of the ventilation pipe at Unit 1.

The Rooppur plant is being built by Rosatom in Ishwardi upazila of Pabna, about 160 km northwest of Dhaka. It will comprise two VVER-1200 reactors.

In November 2011, Russia and Bangladesh signed an inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of the NPP and a general contract was signed in mid-December 2015.

Construction began in 2021. Construction of Unit 1 began in November 2017 and Unit 2 in July 2018.

All the plant's fuel is being provided by Rosatom under a contract finalised in August 2019, and the final protocol, approving delivery, was signed in May. The fuel in the plant will be returned to Russia for processing.

Earlier in August, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission inspected nuclear fuel at Russia's Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (part of Rosatom's Fuel Company TVEL), for the initial fuel loading at Rooppur Unit 1.