Fuel Loading to Begin at Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant on April 28

Fuel loading at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna is set to begin on April 28, marking a significant milestone in Bangladesh’s energy development.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology confirmed the development on Thursday.

Due to time constraints, neither Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina nor Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the inauguration ceremony. Instead, Science and Technology Minister Fakir Mahbub Anam, along with Russian officials and high-level representatives, will formally launch the process at the project site.

Ministry Secretary Md. Anwar Hossain said that fuel loading will initiate the plant’s electricity generation process. He expressed hope that by late July or early August, around 300 megawatts of electricity from the first unit will be added to the national grid. Full-capacity production from the first unit is expected by the end of this year or early next year.

Earlier, on April 16, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority issued the commissioning license for the first unit, clearing the way for fuel loading.

Managing Director of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Limited, Md. Zahidul Hasan, said the process of loading nuclear fuel into the reactor will take approximately 30 to 40 days. He added that after fuel loading, a series of tests and safety evaluations will be conducted to prepare the final safety analysis report, describing it as a complex and critical phase.

The project, located in Ishwardi along the Padma River, has been built at a cost of $12.65 billion with financial and technical support from Russia. It uses two VVER-1200 reactors, which together are expected to generate 2,400 megawatts of electricity—meeting more than 10 percent of the country’s total demand.