"The nuclear fuel — uranium — will arrive in Bangladesh in September. We are expecting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general and Russian president will virtually join our prime minister at the handover programme," said Science and Technology Minister Architect Yeafesh Osman.
"Implementation work of the Rooppur power plant has reached a point that we are very close to graduation [operation]," he said at a press conference organised by the Bangladesh Council of Science and Industrial Research (BCSIR) to launch Bangladesh's first smartphone-based application called "Surja Bidyut".
"When nuclear fuel arrives, then it is considered that the country is graduating for this work," he said.
Bangladesh is implementing its maiden nuclear power generation infrastructure, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant at Ishwardi upazila in Pabna.
As per the project plan, the first unit of the 2,400MW nuclear power plant is expected to commence commercial operation in the first quarter of 2024.
The $13 billion project is being implemented by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with the technical and financial support of Russia.
Before fuel delivery, safety measures and a lot of essential infrastructure, such as power transmission lines and telecommunication, have to be ensured and certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) visiting team, said officials related to the project.
