Country’s largest atomic power project launched

2,200- MEGAWATT PLANT IS TO BE BUILT WITH CHINESE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday launched the construction of the country’s biggest atomic power plant and vowed to pursue further projects to make nuclear the largest energy source.

The 2,200- megawatt plant is to be built with Chinese technical assistance on the Arabian Sea coast at Paradise Beach, 40km west of Karachi. The project is expected to be completed in six years.

Pakistan already has three operational nuclear plants generating a total of 740MW of power and has begun work on a fourth, in addition to the one launched yesterday.

“During the next few years, I look forward to laying a strong and solid foundation of the nuclear energy vision 2050 which envisages nuclear power generation of about 40,000MW,” Sharif said addressing Pakistani and Chinese officials and engineers at Karachi Nulcear Power Project ( KANUPP) after launching the construction of the largest nuclear power project in the country.

“I would encourage the Chinese companies, friends and brothers to invest in power projects in Pakistan,” he said while extending full support of Pakistani government to facilitate them. The government hopes nuclear power will ultimately provide a relatively low- cost solution to the power cuts — known euphemistically as “load- shedding” — that blight life in Pakistan.

Mismanagement, corruption and an over- reliance on expensive imported fuels have left the energy sector in dire straits, with hours- long blackouts a daily reality in the summer months.

“This is one of the first steps of our goal of racing towards a load shedding- free Pakistan,” Sharif told the audience at the site of the plant. The World Nuclear Association has estimated the cost of the new project at nearly $ 10 billion.

Chinese help

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission engineers will work on the project with help from the China Atomic Energy Authority.

As Pakistan is not party to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty it is excluded from the international trade in nuclear materials and technology, and can rely only on its neighbour China for help.

Sharif pledged to increase nuclear power generation capacity to 40,000MW in the long term as part of his energy plan.

N e w s p a p e r D i r e c t