Bangladesh's Rooppur Plant Nears First Power as Russian Financing Adds Structural Risk
The 300 MW first unit is scheduled for August 2026 grid entry, but 90% Russian state financing and ongoing sanctions exposure complicate the $12.6bn project.
Bangladesh is weeks away from connecting the first unit of its Rooppur nuclear plant to the national grid, according to an analysis published Tuesday (2026-07-14) by OilPrice.com. The reactor is expected to deliver 300 MW in August 2026, a figure set to rise above 1,000 MW before the year ends as commissioning progresses.6
The fiscal pressure driving that timeline is not abstract. Bangladesh's power sector posted a $4.53 billion revenue shortfall in fiscal year 2024-25, equivalent to roughly 7% of the national budget, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Industrial electricity tariffs have risen by as much as 17% in response, reaching $0.13 per kilowatt-hour — a level that has already made rooftop and utility-scale solar more competitive during daytime hours and periods of load-shedding.4
Rooppur was designed partly to address exactly this kind of sustained supply deficit. Rosatom is building two reactors that together will add roughly 10% to Bangladesh's total generating capacity. The full 2.4 gigawatt station is expected to enter commercial service in 2028, with fuel loading for the second reactor scheduled for 2027. The initial ramp is gradual: 300 MW in August 2026, then above 1,000 MW by December 2026.6,2
The financing structure is where the exposure concentrates. Russia is reportedly lending approximately 90% of the project's estimated $12.6 billion cost. That arrangement was manageable when structured, but Western financial sanctions on Russian state entities have since complicated equipment sourcing and disbursement timelines. As of the week of May 18 (2026-05-18), The Economist reported Rosatom was in talks to sell a 49% stake in the project — an indication that Moscow is seeking to redistribute both cost and risk at a moment when its own fiscal position is under strain.2
For Bangladesh, the asymmetry cuts in a predictable direction. It has limited leverage over a contractor that controls the fuel supply chain, the technology, and the majority of the project debt. Civilian nuclear cooperation has so far been treated differently from Russian energy exports under sanctions regimes, but the reputational and legal risk of operating a predominantly Russian-financed facility has constrained Dhaka's ability to attract Western co-investors or multilateral lending to balance the dependency.2
In the interim, coal has been the fallback. As of May 2026, Bangladesh had increased coal-fired generation and imports in response to power shortfalls, according to government data.3 The Bangladesh Power Development Board has separately invited international bids for 10 grid-tied solar plants, but utility-scale solar at sufficient scale remains years away.5
Bangladesh's policymakers are also looking further ahead at small modular reactors. OilPrice.com cited SMR capital costs of $500 million to $1 billion per plant — a fraction of Rooppur's per-unit cost — and their smaller footprint of around 300 MW per unit as key attractions. The EIA's technical guidance confirms that SMR designs generally sit at 300 MW or below, against 550 MW to 1,500 MW for conventional large-scale units.6,1 No SMR design has yet entered commercial operation at scale, and the cost advantages narrow when conventional plants' economies of scale are factored in. The SMR discussion in Dhaka is a planning-horizon conversation, not an operational one.
What the August 2026 startup date represents is the more immediate test. Rooppur has accumulated delays driven by financing complications and the complexity of commissioning the country's first nuclear facility, and a further slip would keep Bangladesh dependent on expensive thermal generation and coal imports through at least the first half of 2027. The $4.53 billion annual power sector deficit does not allow much room for extended commissioning timelines.4,6