The VVER-1200 reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and steam generator for unit 1 of the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh arrived on site on 10 November, Russia's Rosatom has announced.
The equipment arrived by Daisy cargo ship at the Bangladesh seaport of Mongla on 20 October, from where it was loaded by river barge before being taken along the Padma River to a newly built river terminal in the immediate vicinity of the construction site. The total journey time between Russia and Bangladesh covered 14,000 km and took almost 2.5 months.
The equipment, which was manufactured by Rosatom subsidiary Atommash at its site in Volgodonsk, Russia, from where it was transported by truck to the pier of the Tsimlyansk reservoir in Volgodonsk, and from there by water to Novorossiysk. From the port of Novorossiysk it was shipped to Bangladesh across the Black Sea and the Suez Canal.
Atommash is itself a subsidiary of Atomenergomash, which is the supplier of all reactor equipment for the Rooppur plant, which is under construction on the eastern bank of the river Ganges and which will consist of two 1200 MWe power units.
Rosatom in February 2011 signed an agreement for two 1000 MWe-class reactors to be built at Rooppur for the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. The initial contract for the project, worth USD12.65 billion, was signed in December 2015.
