Bangladesh Faces Slow Nuclear Start As Energy Crisis Deepens

Bangladesh will likely commission its first nuclear reactor within months, a long-delayed start that comes as the government grapples with acute energy shortages caused by war and trade disruption in the Persian Gulf.

The reactor had initially been planned — under a previous government, ousted in 2024 — for early last year, but the technical complexity of integrating atomic power into the grid has caused delays, according to Energy Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmood, who took office last month.