Previously, we reported that India is betting big on solar energy to power its industrialization drive, abandoning earlier plans to rely on coal. Indeed, India is going off the beaten path by attempting to become the first country to industrialize using clean energy instead of fossil fuels by traditional industrial superpowers. And, India’s smaller neighbor is making an equally high-stakes bet on nuclear energy, another low-carbon resource.Bangladesh is currently developing the giant Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, its biggest infrastructure project in history, with the 2.4-gigawatt plant expected to come online as early as the current year. Located on the banks of the Padma River in western Bangladesh, the $12.65-billion, Russian-built facility is attracting a fair amount of attention because it’s a litmus test for atomic energy in developing nations, as reported by Livemint.
Specifically, the world will be watching to see whether Bangladesh can successfully integrate a complex, high-capital nuclear asset into an emerging economy without suffering catastrophic financial strain. After all, Rooppur is a major financial undertaking considering that Bangladesh's GDP in 2025 clocked in at ~$510 billion.
For Bangladesh, the primary motivation is simply long-term and reliable energy supplies. Recent conflicts (the Middle East war and Russia-Ukraine) have disrupted global energy flows, leading to expensive fuel imports, long queues at filling stations, and widespread rolling blackouts for a country that relies heavily on oil and gas.
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When fully operational, the nuclear plant will provide stable, low-carbon baseload electricity, meeting nearly 15% of Bangladesh's national power demand.
But it also took conflict to ignite a fire under this massive project, which has faced multiple delays over the past decade, starting with the supply challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Western sanctions impacting this Russian-built (Rosatom) plant, currency fluctuations driving up costs by ~25%, and then two major conflicts affecting shipping.
Currently, Bangladesh is highly dependent on India for its electricity, relying on imports to meet a significant portion of its daily power demand. India is currently Bangladesh's largest electricity supplier, with about 2.5 GW to 2.8 GW of daily capacity contracted from Indian power conglomerates, notably Adani Power (which operates a large dedicated coal-fired plant in Godda, Jharkhand) as well as state-owned NTPC and PTC, according to Reuters.
The massive energy reliance has led to frequent tensions between the two countries, particularly concerning pricing and delayed payments by Dhaka due to foreign exchange constraints.
It also leaves Bangladesh at India's mercy: two years ago, India's Adani Power cut electricity exports to Bangladesh by over 60% due to an outstanding payment dispute. Bangladesh's accumulated arrears to Adani Power reached roughly $800 million, largely driven by the PDB's financial constraints and a nationwide shortage of foreign reserves. The cut from the dedicated 1,600 MW Godda plant in Jharkhand significantly impacted Bangladesh's power grid, creating severe energy shortages. Adani Power supplies roughly 10% of Bangladesh's total electricity demand.
The heavy financial burden and the political controversy are likely to render Rooppur the last large-scale nuclear plant Bangladesh builds. Moving forward, Dhaka is shifting its attention to Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), with the government already in talks with Western and Chinese firms, signaling a quiet realignment away from total reliance on Russian energy partnerships, Bloomberg reports.
Typically generating 300 to 400 MW per plant, SMRs are highly appealing to the country's policymakers for several key reasons. First off, SMRs can cost as little as $500 million to $1 billion compared to more than $10 billion for conventional nuclear plants. However, the larger plants enjoy the upper hand in economies of scale, with capital costs typically ranging from $6,600 to $8,000 per kW of capacity compared to $8,000 to over $10,000 per kW for SMRs. Second, SMRs can be deployed along coastal belts and riverbanks much faster than conventional reactors, directly serving concentrated industrial zones without relying on long-distance grid transmission.
The first reactor is expected to begin supplying 300 MW to Bangladesh’s grid in August before increasing to more than 1,000 MW by the end of 2026. Fuel loading for the second reactor is scheduled for 2027, with the full 2.4 GW Rooppur station expected to enter service in 2028. Once both units are online, nuclear power will rank alongside domestic gas as one of Bangladesh’s largest sources of baseload electricity.
