Overcoming airspace hurdles, uranium fuel for the second unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is set to arrive in Bangladesh from Russia starting October. Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, confirmed the development in a statement on Monday.
In its statement, Rosatom stated that nuclear fuel deliveries for Unit 2 will commence in October 2026 and continue through December, concluding by the end of that month.
Under the contract and project timeline, a total of 163 fuel assemblies for the second unit are scheduled to be transported from Russia to Bangladesh across seven chartered flights between October and December.
Some necessary fuel for the first unit will also be included in these shipments.
The uranium consignments are routed from Russia to Bangladesh through the airspace of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. The shipments were recently stalled due to delays in securing airspace permissions from all transit countries.
A fuel-carrying flight originally planned for 24 September was unable to operate following an objection raised by one country regarding the use of its airspace.
According to the latest information, that objection has been resolved, and fresh permissions have been granted. Russia has provided a revised delivery schedule, with the first consignment now expected to arrive in Bangladesh in the first week of October.
Earlier, nuclear fuel for Rooppur’s first unit arrived in Bangladesh on 28 September 2023 and was transported to the project site by road on 29 September.
Fuel loading operations for Unit 1 commenced on 28 April this year, with all 163 fuel assemblies successfully installed in the reactor core in phases by May.
Bangladesh’s maiden nuclear power plant is being constructed with technical and financial assistance from Russia.
The project features two Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactors with a combined capacity of 2,400 megawatts (MW), designed to satisfy all international safety standards. The Engineering Division of Rosatom is serving as the general designer and contractor for the project.
