PM Hasina, Russian President Putin virtually attend fuel handover ceremony of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with Russian President Vladimir Putin are attending the fuel handover ceremony of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant virtually today.

Rosatom Director-General Alexey Likhachev will hand over a certificate of fuel delivery and a model of fuel assembly to Science and Technology Minister Yafesh Osman on Thursday (5 October). 

Bangladesh is set to become the 33rd nuclear power-producing country by loading uranium into the first unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will contribute two percent to the country's GDP (Gross Domestic Product), Yafesh Osman said in a press briefing after inspecting the preparations for this event on Wednesday (4 October).

People will get electricity from Rooppur NPP in the beginning of 2025, he said. "The backward section of people of North Bengal will benefit from this scheme."

The first unit of the Rooppur plant has already been approved for use of uranium by the Russian state corporation Rosatom and international organisations in this field. In this regard, on 28 September, a total of 168 TPS (uranium fuel assemblies, each weighing approximately 7 kilograms) were sent to Bangladesh from Russia.

The consignment of uranium arrived in Dhaka from Russia through a special air cargo and it was transported to the nuclear power plant site by road under heavy security the next day.

The nuclear fuel was flown to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by a special plane direct from a factory in Russia.

The fuel was produced at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (NCCP) in Russia, a subsidiary of Rosatom's fuel manufacturing company Tevel.

The consignment of uranium arrived in Dhaka from Russia through a special air cargo and it was transported to the nuclear power plant site by road under heavy security the next day.

The nuclear fuel was flown to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by a special plane direct from a factory in Russia.

The fuel was produced at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (NCCP) in Russia, a subsidiary of Rosatom's fuel manufacturing company Tevel.

Rosatom, as a Russian contractor, has been engaged in building the 2400 MW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant with two units, each having the capacity of producing 1200 MW electricity.

The nuclear reactor of the first unit of the power plant was loaded in October 2021 while the reactor for the second unit was installed in October 2022.

Once the nuclear fuel is loaded into the power plant's reactors, power can be produced for one year. After that, the fuel will have to be reloaded into the reactor.

The government conceived the idea of setting up the RNPP project in 2009 and signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia on 13 May in 2009 on the "Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy."

On 15 January 2013, an agreement regarding State Export Credit of US$ 500 million was signed for carrying out preparatory phase construction works of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

The government signed a US$12.65 billion general contract (GC) in 2015 with Moscow for building the nuclear power plant.

Bangladesh signed a credit agreement with Russia to obtain $11.385 billion credit for RNPP in July 2016. The credit covers 90% of the project cost.

The Ministry of Science and Technology recently said that the first unit of the plant may come into operation in July 2024 and the second unit in July 2025.

According to the World Nuclear Association website, the countries using nuclear energy include the US, China, France, Russia, South Korea, Canada, Ukraine, Germany, Japan, Spain Sweden, Belgium, UK, India, Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Hungary, Slovakia, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Romania, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Iran and Armenia.