Bangladesh: Political Crisis Hinders Construction of Russian NPP in Rooppur

Popular protests in Bangladesh, which forced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to India, have created problems for many strategic projects, including the Rooppur nuclear power plant, designed and built by the Russian Atomic Energy Company Rosatom state agency.

According to Bengali newspaper The Daily Star, “construction work on a high-voltage transmission line across the Padma and Jamuna rivers for the Rooppur nuclear power plant has stalled after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government.” The newspaper recalls that the contract worth about $525 million for the construction of the line crossing the Padma (two kilometers) and Jamuna (seven kilometers) rivers was awarded to the Indian company Transrail Lighting.

The first of the two lines should be completed by the end of October. However, in July, massive anti-government protests followed by violence caused many Indian and Indonesian workers to flee Bangladesh. According to a press release from the Bangladeshi Power Grid Company, which operates a network of transmission lines, “of the 150 foreign workers, most have not yet returned.”

According to the program presented by Rosatom, the first reactor should be up and running by December 2024. Delays in infrastructure construction are likely to force the Russians to postpone the station’s launch.

At the moment, work at the power plant is proceeding without delays. Simulations of nuclear fuel loading in the first reactor of the Rooppur power plant began on Tuesday, September 17. As stated in Rosatom’s engineering department, a very important process has begun: “loading nuclear fuel block simulators,” specifying that “these are devices that simulate fuel but do not, however, contain radioactive material.”