First shipment of uranium for Rooppur nuclear power plant arrives

The first batch of fresh uranium, the nuclear fuel of the first unit of Rooppur nuclear power plant, has arrived in Bangladesh.

According to official sources, the consignment of uranium arrived in Dhaka from Russia on Thursday afternoon through a special air cargo.

Project director of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project M Shawkat Akbar confirmed the arrival of the nuclear fuel but would not provide details of the air shipment of the nuclear fuel on security grounds.

Sources said director general of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom Aleksey Likhachev will hand over the fuel officially to the project authority in Rooppur project on 5 October.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian president Vladimir Putin are expected to virtually join the function.

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

It will then be taken to the project site at Rooppur in Ishwardi, Pabna by road. Army and law enforcement personnel will be in charge of special security in this uranium transportation.

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 (RNPP) having two units, each capacity 1200 MW.

M Shawkat Akbar said that the government is expecting to commission the first unit of the RNPP in September next year and second unit in mid of 2025.