Bangladesh clarifies end of Sept 2023 for delivery of nuclear fuel to Rooppur NPP

MOSCOW. Sept 26 (Interfax) - The first consignment of nuclear fuel should be delivered to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant by the end of September 2023, Minister of Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman said during the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) general conference.

"We are delivering fuel to the site of the Rooppur NPP in Bangladesh in the coming weeks," Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation CEO Alexei Likhachev said the previous day.

Osman during his speech also said that the first power unit of the Rooppur NPP would be commissioned in 2024.

"The second power unit will be commissioned a year later," Osman said.

There is currently no nuclear power generation in energy-scarce Bangladesh. Rosatom in December 2015 concluded the contract for constructing the country's first NPP, Rooppur, which comprises two power units with 1,200-MW VVER reactors each. The NPP is being built on the Ganges coast according to Russian design, located 160 km from the capital, Dhaka.

The Russian government had previously also approved allocating an export loan of up to $11.38 billion to Bangladesh for constructing the NPP.