Sri Lanka, April 28 -- Bangladesh will begin loading uranium fuel into its first nuclear power station on Tuesday (Apr 28), a key step towards bringing the 2,400 megawatt plant online to ease pressure on the overstretched power grid.

When operating, it could meet up to 10 per cent of the power demands of the South Asian nation of 170 million people, according to the government.

Construction began on the US$11 billion Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in 2017, with initial power generation of around 300 MW hoped to come online by August, before full production in late 2027.

"A controlled nuclear fission chain reaction will be initiated in the reactor core, once fuel loading is completed," Saikat Ahmed, the plant's senior scientific informatio...