The loading of 163 nuclear fuel assemblies into Bangladesh’s first commercial nuclear power reactor has been completed, Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom said.

Fuel loading for Rooppur-1 began on 28 April and is a key step as the plant moves towards generating its first electricity.

Alexey Deriy, vice-president for projects in Bangladesh at Rosatom’s engineering division Atomstroyexport, said the next stage is installing the upper reactor unit and connecting all in-core instrumentation systems. “We will conduct hundreds of further tests to prove the reliable and safe operation of all process systems.”