Rooppur: Bangladesh became the latest entrant to the group of nuclear-power generating nations in the world with fuel being loaded into the first unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP), about 160 km from Dhaka.
With this, Bangladesh became the third country in South Asia, after India and Pakistan, to put nuclear energy to peaceful use.
India has played a behind-the-scenes but important role in preparing Bangladesh’s human resources for safe nuclear operations at Rooppur by training the country’s engineers and scientists under a trilateral cooperation framework involving India, Bangladesh and Russia, as reported by NDTV.
India drew upon its decades of experience in operating Russian-designed VVER reactors at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to act as a technical mentor for Rooppur.
Bangladeshi engineers were trained in reactor operations, nuclear safety culture, radiation protection and regulatory practices by Indian experts from the Department of Atomic Energy and the Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP).
This has helped Bangladesh build operational expertise suited to South Asian conditions and regulatory environments similar to India’s. This capacity-building effort has complemented Russian technical training and has been aimed at ensuring that Rooppur is operated safely, reliably and in line with international norms once it goes on stream.
The fuel loading ceremony at RNPP was attended by Rosatom director general Alexey Likhachev and Bangladesh’s minister of science and technology Fakir Mahbub Anam. The two jointly granted symbolic permission to load fresh nuclear fuel into the Unit 1 reactor core.
Rooppur has two VVER-1200 reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, giving the plant a combined output of 2,400 megawatts. The VVER-1200 is a Generation III+ pressurised water reactor, incorporating advanced passive and active safety systems and meeting the most stringent international safety requirements.
The Rooppur reactor will be brought to the minimum controlled level, a stable and carefully managed power state, following the loading. This will be followed by gradual power escalation and, finally, grid synchronisation, when electricity produced at RNPP will begin flowing into Bangladesh’s national grid.
“Today, Bangladesh has joined the club of countries that use the peaceful atom as a reliable source of sustainable development,” Likhachev said, adding: “Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will definitely become the most important element of the energy system of the country.”
“The peaceful utilisation of nuclear energy will play a vital role in ensuring national energy security, accelerating industrialisation and fostering the growth of a technology-driven economy,” Anam said.
“The Rooppur project stands as a symbol of Bangladesh’s scientific advancement and demonstrates our readiness and capability to harness advanced technologies responsibly and effectively,” he added.
RNPP offers a stable baseload alternative to fossil fuels and imported energy for Bangladesh, where electricity demand is rising rapidly due to industrial growth and urbanisation. Once fully operational, the plant is expected to supply a significant share of the country’s total electricity, strengthening energy security while also reducing carbon emissions.
The fuel loading milestone carries wider symbolic weight for Bangladesh, reflecting decades of planning, regulatory preparation, and international oversight, particularly from the International Atomic Energy Agency, to ensure safe and responsible use of nuclear technology.
As the country prepares for grid-connected nuclear electricity in the coming months, Rooppur stands as a marker of the country’s arrival into a new phase of technological maturity, with one of the most modern reactor designs in operation anywhere in the region.
