FRIDAY MAY 13: Third 330 megawatts nuclear plant becomes operational

CHASHMA: Pakistan's third nuclear electric power plant went operational on Thursday, pumping another 330MW into the national grid in a bid to help meet country's growing energy demand and cut down the shortfall. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani inaugurated the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit-1 (CHASNUPP-2), located near Chashma Barrage on the left bank of River Indus, 32 kilometres south of Mianwali city and, 280 kms south-west of Islamabad.
Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar, Acting Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi, Chairman Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Dr Ansar Parvez accompanied the prime minister. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Khalid Shamim Wyne, Lieutenant General Khalid Ahmed Kidwai (Retd), Director General, Strategic Plans Division and Pakistan's ambassador to China Masood Khan were also present.
Addressing the gathering, the prime minister termed the moment as a proud day for Pakistan and its civil nuclear energy programme. He said the completion of Chashma-2 three months ahead of the scheduled time was a reward for the joint efforts of Chinese and Pakistani teams, the benefits of which will go directly to the people of Pakistan.
He regarded it yet another illustrious example of the Pakistan-China co-operation in the field of nuclear science and technology. "Completion of this project takes to even greater heights the long and time-tested friendship between the two countries and their peoples," he said.
Gilani lauded the CNNC and other Chinese teams and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission for their excellent planning and execution. He assured that his government would strongly support the efforts of PAEC in developing the nuclear power programme of the country.
He said the government was fully conscious of the sufferings of the people and the adverse effects of electricity shortfall on industrial production and economic growth of the country. "We are duty bound to make every effort to overcome the prevailing crisis by exploiting all the available sources and avenues of power generation in the shortest possible time," he said.
The prime minister said the generation of additional 330MW electricity would provide immediate relief to a section of consumers, adding that two more power plants C-3 and C-4 already under construction at this site would help in paving the way for PAEC to meet the government assigned target of 8800MW by the year 2030.
"In fact, I will encourage you to look beyond 2030, say to 2050, and provide Pakistan with far greater capacity than 8800MW. I am sure, you will accept the challenge," he said. Gilani also emphasised on paying full attention to the safety of the current and the future nuclear power plants of the country and expressed satisfaction on undergoing a review of safety assessment and emergency preparedness of their plants in the wake of nuclear accident in Japan.
The prime minister urged the international community to eliminate discrimination between nations and make this promising technology accessible to Pakistan for peaceful use like power generation. He pointed that Pakistan has been consistently complying with the requirements of nuclear safeguard agreements signed between the government of Pakistan and the International Atomic Energy Agency - and said this would continue to be the practice for all the civil nuclear power plants to be built in Pakistan in future.
He said building and operating nuclear power plants was vital to the interest of the people of Pakistan because as the country was suffering from severe energy deficiency and needed more power plants. Gilani acknowledged China for the strong support in this area, adding that he would visit China shortly and would take this opportunity to personally thank the Chinese leadership for their strategic support in helping Pakistan meet its nuclear energy targets.
Earlier, the prime minister took round of various sections of the power plant and expressed satisfaction over the level of technological expertise. Chairman PAEC Dr Ansar Parvez said two more plants C3 and C4 had already been planned in accordance with the safeguard agreements with IAEA approved by the its board of governors in March.
He said first concrete of the nuclear island has been poured for C3 and the plant will come on line in 2016. He said the ground-breaking for C4 will take place next month and will come on line 10 months later. He said this would lay the foundation towards the target to produce 8800MW by year 2013.
He said PAEC had put in place systems to ensure safe, reliable and economic operation of the plants, under the regulatory requirements of Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority. He said the events at Fukushima nuclear power plant had been closely monitored and where required, additional measures would be taken to further improve safety and emergency planning.
Dr Ansar said plans were also afoot to develop the required human resource to increase indigenous capability of equipment manufacturing and to enhance fuel cycle handling capacity. He said the C1 has operated with better than 98 percent availability factor and a capacity factor above 95 percent. He said according to the tariff settled by Nepra is Rs 4.6 per unit or 5.5 cents.
He said the project had also impacted the socio-economic conditions of the people living in adjoining areas. He said direct job opportunities had been created and 40 percent employees belonged to Mianwali district. Vice Administrator of SASTIND Wang Yiren congratulated Pakistan on ahead of schedule completion of the plant and said the ties between the two countries were solid as a rock.
He said both countries need to strengthen co-operation in nuclear safety and hoped that the joint Pakistan-China team would deliver on time completion of C3 and C4, while ensuring all safety parameters and write new chapters of friendship between the two countries. Later, Prime Minister Gilani gave away honorary shields to the Pakistani and Chinese engineers who contributed to the project.
The construction on the Pressurised Water Reactor, built with the Chinese assistance, began on December 28, 2005 and was connected to the electricity grid on March 14, 2011. Being operational from today (May 12), the plant has a net capacity of 300MW, and a gross capacity is 325MW. With the Chasnupp-2 operational the country's nuclear energy generation would rise to 725 megawatts. Current nuclear power generation stands at a mere 2.8 percent of electricity generated in the country.
The IAEA Board of Governors had unanimously approved the Safeguards Agreement between Pakistan and IAEA in respect of CHASHMA-2 nuclear power in November 2006. Pakistan 's two research reactors (PARR-I & PARR2) and two nuclear power plants (KANUPP & CHASHMA-1) are already under the IAEA safeguards. CHASNUPP-2 is part of Pakistan's "Energy Security Plan", that envisages an increase in nuclear power generation from the current 425 MWe to 8800 MWe by the year 2030 to meet country's growing energy demands.
Pakistan had termed the agreement with IAEA a success for Pakistan and recognition of its non-proliferation commitments. Pakistan has a small nuclear power program, with 725 MWe capacity, but plans to increase this substantially. The country's first Canadian pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) at Karachi - KANUPP, with a gross capacity of 137 MWe is generating net 125 MWe and is under international safeguards.
The second unit is Chashma-1 (CHASNUPP-1) in Punjab, a 325 MWe (300 MWe net) 2-loop pressurised water reactor (PWR) has been supplied by China's CNNC under safeguards. The main part of the plant was designed by Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI) and it started operations in May 2000. It also has a design life of 40 years.
Work on the Chashma-3 and Chashma-4 reactors with 300 MWe each is also under way and would nearly double this capacity, adding another 600 megawatts to the grid. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Power Reactor Information System there are 443 nuclear power reactions in operation, with a total installed capacity of over 375 GW(e) around the world.