Nuclear fuel delivered for Bangladesh’s second unit

The delivery was by cargo plane and then by road. The fuel assemblies were produced at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, which is part of Rosatom's fuel division TVEL. They are now in a specialised storage facility.

Rosatom said: "All items undergo mandatory incoming inspection, including both visual and instrumental testing, to confirm compliance with technical documentation requirements."

The inspection team is made up of Bangladeshi experts as well as representatives from the general contractor and manufacturer.

Earlier this autumn, fresh nuclear fuel was delivered from Siberia for the first-ever refuelling of unit 1 at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. This refuelling will take place after the reactor has completed its initial one-year fuel cycle.

Nuclear fuel was loaded in Rooppur unit 1 earlier this year and that unit was brought to its minimum controllable power level at the start of October.

Background

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 - that was the moment that the site got its status as a nuclear facility. An operating licence for unit 1 was issued by the Bangladesh Nuclear Regulatory Authority on 16 April this year. The process of loading 163 nuclear fuel assemblies into Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant reactor was completed in May and the unit achieved criticality - a self-sustaining nuclear reaction - at 15:34 on Sunday, 11 October.