Deliveries Conclude by Late December
Rooppur Unit Two Nuclear Fuel In October
- Rooppur nuclear fuel deliveries to resume in October following Pakistan airspace delay
- Forty-eight fuel assemblies for Unit One reload arriving in two flights
- Rosatom confirms entire fuel batch for Unit Two concludes by December
Marking a critical technological benchmark in the nation's nuclear engineering landscape, deliveries of nuclear fuel for Unit 2 of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant are set to commence in October and conclude by the end of December 2026. On Monday, September 28, 2026, Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom affirmed the operational timeline in an official statement, confirming that shipments will arrive via multiple cargo flights in full compliance with contractual parameters, following a temporary flight rescheduling caused by transit airspace constraints.
According to informed industry sources, full logistical and technical preparations were complete in Russia; however, the specialized cargo aircraft was grounded after failing to secure overflight permission from Pakistan. The shipment, originally slated to arrive on September 24 to support refueling operations for Bangladesh’s pioneering atomic facility, typically traverses an established flight corridor crossing Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
Clarifying the operational logistics, Kabir Hossain, Project Director of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant construction project, told media personnel: "The fuel for Unit 1 will need to be replaced after one year. That refers to the reload scheduled a year later. For that, 48 fuel assemblies were to arrive on two flights, one scheduled for September 24 and another for October 1."
The Project Director detailed that Rosatom officially notified project authorities around 9:00 PM on September 23 that the inaugural flight was postponed due to pending clearances across the transit route. Consequently, the operational timeline has been adjusted by a week, scheduling the resumption of flights for October 1.
Addressing the broader technical rollout, Kabir Hossain stated that the initial core fuel load for Unit 2 was mapped out to arrive via seven consecutive weekly flights starting October 8. While international media coverage linked the flight disruption directly to Unit 2, Rosatom’s official release sidestepped direct mention of the airspace standoff, highlighting instead that the second reactor's specialized fuel supply chain will be executed systematically across upcoming airlift operations by the close of December.
//DBTech/DFR/SMP/EMS//
