Bangladesh gearing up for Rooppur 'graduation'

Monday, 26 June 2023

"The nuclear fuel - uranium - will arrive in Bangladesh in September. We are expecting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general and Russian president will virtually join our prime minister at the handover programme," Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman said at a press conference hosted by the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) on 24 June. This will mark the "graduation" of the project, he added. Osman's words were reported by The Business Standard.

All the plant's fuel is being provided by Rosatom under a contract finalised in August 2019, and the final protocol required for delivery to go ahead was signed last month. All used fuel from the plant will be repatriated to Russia.

Russia agreed to build Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant in a 2011 intergovernmental agreement, and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and signed an initial USD12.65 billion contract with Rosatom for the construction of two 1200 MWe VVER pressurised water reactors at Rooppur, 160 kilometres from the capital Dhaka, at the end of 2015. Construction of the first unit began in November 2017 and the second the following July.

Concreting of unit 1's outer containment building was completed in March - 110 days, 45 days ahead of schedule, according to Rosatom.