Bangladesh goes nuclear

Bangladesh crossed into the nuclear era on Tuesday as uranium fuel began loading into the reactor of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Pabna, making the country the 33rd nation in the world to harness nuclear energy.

The ceremony, conducted under heavy security, was hailed by officials as a historic turning point — even as longstanding questions about the project’s economic rationale and safety continue to shadow its ambitions.

Science and Technology Minister Fakir Mahbub Anam inaugurated the fuel loading by pressing an automated switch alongside other dignitaries. “Today, Bangladesh becomes part of history,” he declared.

“Safety has been given the highest priority throughout this project.

The electricity from this plant will not only benefit Pabna — it will play a tremendous role in the socioeconomic development of the entire country.”

The ceremony was also addressed by Prime Minister’s Science and Technology Adviser Rehan Asif Asad and Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, which is building the plant.

Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), joined the proceedings virtually.

The Ministry of Science and Technology described the fuel loading as the final major step before commercial electricity generation.

Trial production is expected to begin in phases, with up to 300 megawatts potentially flowing into the national grid as early as August.

A Generational Project
The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is the largest single infrastructure project in Bangladesh’s history.

Russian contractor Atomstroyexport is constructing two units of 1,200 megawatts each under the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission — a combined capacity of 2,400 MW.

The plant received formal recognition as a nuclear facility in October 2023, when the first consignment of uranium fuel

arrived from Russia by air and was transported under special security to the Rooppur site, where it had been stored pending Tuesday’s milestone.

Is Nuclear Power the Right Call?

The fanfare, however, has not silenced a debate that has persisted since the project’s planning stages.

Critics argue that nuclear power is a poor strategic fit for a country as densely populated and disaster-prone as Bangladesh.

Mo Chaudhury, associate professor of finance at McGill University in Canada, has questioned the project’s long-term logic.

The government’s own projections put Bangladesh’s electricity demand at 34,000 MW by 2030.

At that scale, Rooppur’s 2,400 MW — even operating at 90 per cent capacity — would account for a small fraction of the country’s needs.

“If the economy and the population continue to grow, this percentage will dwindle even further beyond 2030,” Chaudhury has said, arguing that nuclear power is unlikely to make a meaningful dent in the country’s growing energy appetite unless many more plants are built.

Safety concerns have also been raised. Abdul Matin, a nuclear engineer and former senior official at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, noted that the 2011 Fukushima disaster prompted many countries — particularly in Europe — to begin phasing out nuclear power. Russia, China, and India pressed ahead, he said, but only after incorporating costly new safety features into their designs.

Fewer Options Than It Seems Defenders of the project, however, argue that Bangladesh’s alternatives are grimmer than critics acknowledge.

Approximately 70 per cent of Bangladesh’s electricity currently comes from natural gas.

The country’s proven gas reserves — estimated at 18 trillion cubic feet — are expected to run out within the foreseeable future, leaving Bangladesh dependent on expensive imports of liquefied natural gas or coal to meet projected demand.

The government has already begun constructing three large coal-fired power plants of 1,200 MW each, with more planned.

Dr. Shamsul Alam, a professor of electrical and electronic engineering at Daffodil International University and energy adviser to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, argued that for reliable baseload power, a nuclear plant of Rooppur’s size could realistically only be replaced by an equivalent coal plant.

Renewable energy, he said, faces a hard geographic constraint in one of the world’s most densely populated countries.

“To have a 100-MW solar power plant you need 500 acres of land, and lands are scarce in this 144,000-square-kilometer country,” he noted.