Moscow, August 30 – The Governments of the Russian Federation and Bangladesh have on Wednesday signed a collaboration agreement on the import
of spent nuclear fuel of Rooppur NPP to Russia.The agreement was signed by Alexey Likhachev, Chief Executive Officer of Rosatom- Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, and Yafes Osman, Minister for Science and Technology of the Government of Bangladesh.
The Agreement stipulates provisions for reprocessing of the spent Russian nuclear fuel from the Rooppur NPP at subsidiary enterprises of Rosatom. Implementation of the Agreement will define the procedure for treatment of the spent nuclear fuel of Rooppur NPP project.
“Rooppur NPP will be equipped with two Russian VVER reactors, each with a minimum capacity of 1,200 MW. The VVER-1200 offered by Rosatom is a modern generation 3+ project which meets all post-Fukushima safety standards and international rules,” said Alexey Likhachev.
“The agreement constitutes a major milestone of the Rooppur NPP construction project which has become a symbol of a new stage in development of bilateral cooperation of our countries even before the start of the construction.”
Both the sides have prepared an intergovernmental Agreement on the treatment of the spent nuclear fuel of the Rooppur NPP. In accordance with the established procedure, the document was approved by the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. It is planned to prepare and sign commercial contracts as part of the further development of the intergovernmental Agreement.
The Rooppur NPP is the largest joint project based on Russian technologies that will allow Bangladesh to enter into the international community of countries, who use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Implementation of the project is given the highest national priority in Bangladesh.
The construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) is implemented under an intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia and Bangladesh on November 2 nd, 2011. On December 25 th , 2015 ASE group of companies (ROSATOM’s subsidiary) signed a contract to construct Rooppur NPP consisting of two VVER power units, each with a capacity of 1200 MW.
The NPP construction site is located 160 km from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on the east bank of the Padma river. The first of two units is expected to go into operation in 2023, the second – in 2024. The design of the innovative Generation 3+ power unit which will be installed on Rooppur NPP includes the most powerful type of VVER-1200 reactor, as well as a high-speed turbine specially designed for new-generation NPPs. It provides the highest level of operational safety and fully meets all post-Fukushima requirements strictly set by the IAEA. – Triune Group press release
