Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom has begun supplying nuclear fuel for the initial loading of the second unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, with the first batch of fuel assemblies recently flown to Bangladesh.
The fuel assemblies for the unit’s VVER-1200 reactor were manufactured at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, an enterprise of Rosatom’s Fuel Division, the corporation said in a statement on Thursday.
Rosatom said the fuel containers had been transported to a dedicated fresh nuclear fuel storage facility at the plant site after their arrival.
The assemblies will undergo mandatory visual and instrumental inspections to ensure compliance with technical specifications and nuclear safety requirements.
A joint commission comprising representatives of Bangladesh, the project’s general contractor and the fuel manufacturer will conduct the inspections in accordance with nuclear and radiation safety regulations, the statement said.
The corporation also said it had completed shipments of fresh nuclear fuel from Siberia for the first refuelling of Rooppur’s Unit 1, which is scheduled after the reactor completes its first annual fuel cycle.
Rosatom’s Engineering Division completed the initial fuel loading into the Unit 1 reactor core in 2026, and the reactor reached its minimum controllable power level in October, marking a major step towards electricity generation, the company said.
However, Unit 1 must undergo further power ascension tests and obtain the necessary regulatory approvals before it can be connected to the national grid and begin trial commercial operation, according to Rosatom.
Rooppur, Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant, has two Russian-designed Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactors with a combined capacity of 2,400 megawatts.
Rosatom’s Engineering Division is the project’s general designer and general contractor.
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