DHAKA: Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant has officially started up one of its reactors, authorities said on Friday, marking the beginning of an electricity generation process that would eventually supply more than 10 percent of the country’s energy needs.

Located on the banks of the Padma River, the Russian-built Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant was authorized to begin operations by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Authority a day earlier.

“The power startup process has begun,” Dr. Kabir Hossain, project director for the development of the Rooppur facility, told Arab News.

Fuel loading for the first of two reactors took place in April and May, followed by the plant’s unit one achieving first criticality earlier this month. That is when the nuclear chain reaction within the reactor is self-sustaining, indicating that it is operating safely.

With the official clearance, Bangladesh is now cleared to conduct more tests and eventually begin power generation gradually, before starting trial electricity supply to the national grid.

“We can say that power can be supplied to the national grid from this nuclear power plant by this coming December,” Hossain said.

While everything depends on the “actual progress” on the ground, the first 1.2-gigawatt reactor is expected to become fully operational in 2027, with the second one to follow in 2028.

According to Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali-language newspaper, Rooppur is the largest single project in Bangladesh’s history, the total cost of which is expected to reach about $11.2 billion.

The 2.4-gigawatt project began in 2017 and was followed by a series of upheavals including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the US-Israeli war on Iran. The global events effectively pushed Bangladesh to reduce its heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels, but also delayed Rooppur’s original commissioning schedule.

The South Asian nation of 170 million people gets about half of its electricity supply from gas and has experienced bouts of chronic shortages over the years. It was one of the countries hardest hit by the fuel crisis sparked by the war in the Middle East.

“As a substitute for gas, we can now provide nuclear power. In our master plan, 11 percent is designated to come from nuclear … With this, our fuel import dependency will decrease for electricity,” Hossain said.

“For the sake of our economy and in order to achieve energy security, this nuclear power plant carries a huge significance.”