Bangladesh Joins The ‘Nuclear League’, Gets First Uranium Shipment From Russia For Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant

Bangladesh received the first shipment of uranium fuel for its debut nuclear power plant on Thursday (05 Oct), making it the 33rd country in the world to produce nuclear power.

Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, as a contractor, has been engaged in building the 2400 MW Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) with two units, each having the capacity to produce 1200 MW of electricity.

Rosatom Director General, Aleksey Likhachev, handed over the radioactive fuel to the RNPP authority at a formal “Graduation Ceremony,” which was virtually attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin from Ganabhaban and Kremlin respectively.

Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi also joined the ceremony through video conference.

"Bangladesh is our long-term friend and partner," Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the ceremony.

Hasina described the milestone in her country's nuclear ambitions as "a day of pride and joy for the people of Bangladesh" in a speech thanking Putin for "his guidance and assistance".

PM Hasina also said that Russia has promised to take back the spent fuel of the Rooppur Plant to their country. She further said that they have signed an agreement with the Russian Federation for the management of spent fuel.

The $12.65-billion plant is being bankrolled by Russia, with Moscow providing a loan for 90 percent of its cost, repayable within 28 years with a 10-year grace period.

Bangladesh signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Russian Federation for cooperation concerning the construction of two VVER-type (water-cooled water-moderated reactor) power units at Rooppur NPP site on 2nd November, 2011.

Under the provision of the IGA, the governments of Bangladesh and Russian Federation signed an intergovernmental credit agreement (IGCA) of $ 500 million state export credit on 15 January, 2013 for financing the preparatory stage construction activities of Rooppur NPP. Bangladesh also signed another IGCA amounting $11.385 billion on 26 July 2016 for financing the construction of Rooppur plant.

The site is located on the banks of the river Padma (the local name for the lower reaches of the Ganges River), 160 km north-west of the capital Dhaka and 21 km north-west from the city of Pabna.

Construction on the nuclear plant at Rooppur began in 2017 and the first unit is slated to begin operations next year and both reactors should be fully online in 2025.

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 project aimed at bolstering Bangladesh's overstretched energy grid has been complicated by sanctions on Moscow.

Bangladesh also plans to build a second nuclear power station in the south, although a final site has not been decided.

Also read: Explained: India's First Transnational Power Project By Adani And Why It Is Crucial For Energy-Starved Bangladesh