Tuesday, 5 August 2025
A blowdown of the fresh steam pipelines in the turbine compartment has been completed at the first unit of the Rooppur nuclear power plant being built in Bangladesh.
The blowdown was carried out using fresh steam under 2.0 MPa pressure at 200 degrees Celsius. Rosatom described it as one of the key stages of cold and hot functional tests during the commissioning process and shows the readiness of the unit’s steam lines to supply steam to the turbine.
The tests, during which the steam was discharged into the atmosphere, clean the pipelines and “will be followed by the repeated blowdown of the steam pipelines with an increased volume of fresh steam which will allow for the final cleaning of the main lines and specify the equipment operating parameters under a near-operational load”.
Hot testing of the unit began last month and it is designed as a general check of the reliability of the reactor unit “before moving on to the next, more important stages … and shows where the system is ready to function under conditions close to real operation”.
Atomstroyexport, part of Rosatom, explained last month that “during the tests, the reactor unit is heated up, and our specialists check step-by-step how key elements operate under these conditions: pumps, pipelines, heat exchange equipment. It is important to record how the equipment behaves under load – after all, it will be the one that will ensure reliable operation of the plant later”.
Leak tests on the containment building for Rooppur 1 were successfully completed in June.
Alexey Deriy, Atomstroyexport JSC Vice President for Projects in Bangladesh, said: “With the completion of this stage of commissioning works, the Rooppur NPP takes another step towards the pivotal event, such as launching of power unit No 1 and its subsequent connection to the power grid, which will supply the country’s residents with additional energy, vital for both the economy and industry. In the future, the Rooppur NPP built according to the latest Russian VVER-1200 design, is expected to supply Bangladesh with up to 10% of clean energy for decades to come.”
The Rooppur project
In February 2011 Russia’s Rosatom signed an agreement for two reactors to be built at Rooppur, about 160 kilometres from the capital Dhaka, for the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. The initial contract for the project, worth USD12.65 billion, was signed in December 2015. The Bangladesh Atomic Regulatory Authority issued the first site licence for the Rooppur plant in June 2016, allowing preliminary site works, including geological surveys, to begin.
Construction of the first unit began in November 2017. Construction of the second unit began in July 2018. They have an initial life-cycle of 60 years, with a further 20-year extension possible.
The first batch of nuclear fuel was delivered to the site in October 2023 – the moment that the site got its status as a nuclear facility. In March Rooppur unit 1’s turbine installation was completed, as were hydraulic tests to check the primary circuit systems and equipment, paving the way for hot functional tests to begin. Rosatom has included grid connection for Rooppur unit 1 as one of its key targets for the current year.
