The second shipment of “fresh nuclear fuel”, or uranium, for the second unit of the Rooppur nuclear power plant has reached the plant. The vehicles carrying the uranium entered the Rooppur project area in Ishwardi, Pabna, at 10:05am today (Wednesday) under special army security.
Dr Zayedul Hasan, managing director of Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Limited, confirmed the arrival.
The aircraft carrying the nuclear fuel reached Dhaka from Russia late on Tuesday night. After it landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, officials of the Atomic Energy Commission took charge of the consignment.
Early on Wednesday the vehicles set off from the airport for Rooppur in three lorries. Under tight army security they crossed the Jamuna Bridge and travelled through Banpara in Natore and Dashuria in Ishwardi, Pabna, to the Rooppur project area.
Police were posted at every junction along the highway. Members of the Special Security Force (SRB) and intelligence agencies were also on duty alongside the army.
Police and people involved in the project said the uranium convoy travelled by road from Dhaka inside a special security cordon. Heavy vehicles were temporarily stopped to keep the highway clear.
Several sources involved said 163 uranium assemblies were to be brought into the country in seven cargoes for Rooppur’s second unit, along with an additional 48 assemblies in two cargoes for refuelling the first unit. Today’s consignment, the unit’s second, is part of that. Over November and December another eight flights will bring the remaining shipments from Russia, routed over Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom, has said the entire fuel supply will be completed by December.
The fuel for the first unit first reached the Rooppur plant on 29 September 2023. Four more shipments for the first unit arrived in October and November that year. That fuel was loaded into the reactor in May this year.
About a year and a half from now, however, a quarter of the fuel used in that unit will have to be replaced. For that reason an extra shipment of uranium for the first unit was brought to Rooppur on the afternoon of 3 October this month. Under the agreement, Russia will supply fuel for the first three years. After that Bangladesh will have to import fuel for the scheduled replacements.
The two units of the Rooppur nuclear power plant have a combined generating capacity of 2,400 megawatts. Although fuel loading in the first unit has been completed, the schedule for generating electricity has slipped because of various complications.
Power from the plant is expected to be connected to the national grid in November. Construction and commissioning work on the second unit is also moving ahead.
Ashadur Rahman Asad, officer-in-charge (OC) of Ishwardi police station, said the convoy carrying the second uranium shipment reached Rooppur by road under tight security from the army, the SRB, police and other law enforcement agencies.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report