The delivery of uranium fuel for the second unit of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant has been delayed after the cargo aircraft carrying the fuel did not receive permission to use Pakistani airspace, Bangladesh’s Science and Technology Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam said.

The aircraft was scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh on 24 September, but did not reach the country as planned.

Speaking by phone to Indian news agency ANI, the minister said a cargo aircraft carrying uranium fuel for the Rooppur plant was scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh on 24 September. However, the fuel could not be brought to Bangladesh on schedule because the aircraft did not receive permission to use Pakistani airspace.

The minister said Bangladesh had so far not been able to determine the exact reason why Pakistan did not allow the aircraft to use its airspace.

He said work was under way on a new schedule for transporting the uranium. Russia has said the fuel could reach Bangladesh in the first week of October.

Sheikh Mohammed Tauhidul Islam, joint secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology, told ANI that all necessary preparations had been completed at the airport ahead of the scheduled arrival of the uranium-carrying aircraft.

Officials were also waiting for the aircraft, he said.

However, a liaison officer of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, which is involved in the Rooppur project, later informed Bangladesh that there was an airspace-related problem affecting the aircraft’s movement.

As a result, the aircraft was not dispatched according to the original plan, Sheikh Mohammed Tauhidul Islam said.

He added that a new schedule might have to be arranged. However, Bangladeshi officials did not provide details on which country or authority had prevented the use of the airspace.

ANI contacted a Rosatom representative by email for comment, but no response had been received by the time the report was published.

Rooppur is Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant and is being built on the bank of the Padma River in Rooppur village of Pakshi union in Ishwardi upazila of Pabna.

The project is being implemented by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission with technical assistance from Rosatom. Two nuclear reactors based on third-generation VVER-1200 technology are being built at the plant, with the two units expected to generate a combined 2,400MW of electricity.

The first consignment of low-enriched uranium fuel for Rooppur’s first unit arrived in Bangladesh in October 2023. The arrival marked a new stage in Bangladesh’s preparations for nuclear power generation.

The nuclear fuel was produced at Rosatom’s Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant in Russia. The first consignment contained 164 new fuel assemblies.

The fuel was transported directly from Russia to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by a heavy cargo aircraft in accordance with international security measures.

It was then transported from Dhaka airport to the Rooppur project site in Ishwardi, Pabna, in radiation-resistant containers under special security arrangements. A special ‘green corridor’ was established between Dhaka and Ishwardi for the transportation.

Members of the Bangladesh Army and law-enforcement agencies were responsible for security during the transportation. The fuel was formally handed over at the Rooppur project site in October 2023.