The Russian firm that is building Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) is pushing the government to install an untested new reactor instead of the proven reactor originally agreed upon, a Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) director, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) wants to install the VVER-TOI reactor which uses Third Generation Plus technology and has a capacity of 1200MW. The VVER-TOI reactor is the export version of Russia’s VVER-1200 reactor.
The VVER-TOI reactor, developed by Russian scientists, has not been used in any nuclear power plant in the world except for one in Russia which is on a test run.
It was originally planned that the Third Generation VVER-1000 reactor, with a capacity of 1000MW, would be installed at Rooppur.
At a high-level meeting on August 12 presided over by the prime minister’s economic affairs adviser, Mashiur Rahman, it was decided that only proven technologies would be used at the Rooppur plant.
Nuclear expert Kamal Hossain, a reactor safety and scientific computation specialist of AREVA GmbH, Germany, advised the government not to switch from the previously agreed VVER-1000 reactor to the new technology.
“The VVER-1000 is currently the best-selling nuclear reactor worldwide – mainly due to the features it offers for its price. But the VVER-1200 has not yet been certified by any western country and has had no operational experience,” Kamal, who is a Bangladeshi, said yesterday at a seminar in the capital on nuclear energy in Bangladesh.
Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman, BAEC member Mahmudul Hasan, RNPP Project Director Mohammad Shawkat Akbar, Commandant of Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST) Major General Md Siddiqur Rahman Sarkar and Major Md Altab Hossain, head of the nuclear science and technology department, addressed the seminar.
“Bangladesh agreed with Russia to build two VVER-1000 reactors at Rooppur. VVER-1000 is a pressurized water reactor designed by Russia’s Rosatom,” Kamal told the seminar organised by the nuclear science and engineering department of MIST.
“The most significant additions [to the VVER-1200 reactor] are a passive heat removal system and a core catcher to contain the molten reactor core in the event of a severe accident. These important features of the VVER-1200 can be added to Rooppur power plant.
“They were added to VVER-1000 reactors in Kudankulam in India,” he said.
“I think that considering the capacity of our national power grid, smaller reactors are more suitable for Bangladesh. In case of an emergency shutdown, the oscillation produced by big reactors could be high enough to make the grid collapse,” Kamal said.
“Radiation exposure in case of a severe accident from a bigger reactors is higher as well,” he added.
RNPP is a proposed 2,000 megawatt nuclear power plant scheduled to go into operation by 2021.
Rosatom will build, operate and provide fuel for the plant. BAEC, under the Science and Technology Ministry, will implement the project.
