Deal signed for liquid radioactive waste management at Rooppur NPP

A contract has been signed between two Russian companies for manufacturing and supplying the hi-tech equipment to handle the liquid radioactive waste at Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) project.

According to Rosatom, the Russian contractor of the RNPP, Atomstroyexport as the General Contractor has entered into a contract with Russian company Sverdniikhimmash (SCERI JSC) for this purpose.

Under the contract, SCERI will design, manufacture and supply three drain water treatment plants, three deep evaporation plants, two cementation plants, two conditioning plants, two intermediary storage plants, WIR (waste ion resins) loading and unloading units, the container for WIR transportation.

The equipment will be supplied to the Rooppur NPP site by the third quarter of 2023. The SCERI experts will also support pre-commissioning works of the equipment.

"We know SCERI as a safe partner that develops high-quality equipment", said Aleksey Deriy, vice-president of ASE and director of the Rooppur NPP Construction Project.

At present, the construction of Rooppur NPP is at its active stage – buildings are erected and the installation of the main equipment in two power units is performed.

For sure, this contract will facilitate fulfillment of our obligations to the Customer of Rooppur NPP – manufacture and installation of the equipment will be done exactly in time," he added.

"It is a large-scale and very critical order for SCERI and choosing our institute as a designer and supplier of the process equipment for liquid radioactive waste handling is absolutely justified," said Aleksandr Cheperanov, director-general of SCERI.

For many years, SCERI has been specialising in designing and manufacturing of efficient and safe equipment for nuclear waste handling, he mentioned adding, "Equipment, designed by our engineers is functioning in many Russian nuclear power plants with excellence"

The SCERI is a concern of Atomenergomash, the machine-building division of Rosatom.

In 2019 SCERI signed a contract for designing, manufacturing, and supply of a package of equipment for handling materials and components not subject to subsequent use, for unit-1 of Rooppur NPP.

The first lot of process equipment is now being prepared for shipment to Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, the implementation authority of the RNPP, the first unit of the plant was scheduled to start operation in 2022 and second unit in 2024.

But recently the first unit's operation was rescheduled to 2024 and the second unit to 2025.