The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has stepped up its activities to achieve the target of 8800 MW of nuclear power generation by 2030 through the Energy Security Plan formulated by the government in 2005.

According to the Economic Survey 2019-20 released on June 11, the completion of the K-2/K-3 project will be a major step forward, which will bring the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission 2200 MW closer to achieving this goal .

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission plans to develop more nuclear power plants in the future and determine sites nationwide. These locations are under investigation and are being developed. According to the survey, sufficient technical and engineering infrastructure is in place to support existing and under construction nuclear power plants.

The local institute regularly trains skilled manpower, from technical training to academic courses, to provide the most advanced training and education in all relevant disciplines and at all levels.

These tools are sufficient to successfully support the foreseeable future ambitions envisaged by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission for Pakistan’s future nuclear power program.

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission is the only department in Pakistan engaged in the use of nuclear technology to generate electricity. There are five nuclear power plants at two locations in Pakistan, one at the Karachi nuclear power plant in Karachi and the four units at the Chashma nuclear power plant (CI, C-2, C-3 and C-4) in Chashma. The total capacity of these five nuclear power plants is 1,430 MW, which provided approximately 7.143 billion units of electricity to the State Grid from July 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. One of the oldest KANUPP has exceeded the design life of 30 years, in fact, has been safely and successfully operated for 48 years. In terms of durability and availability, Chashma’s four units are among the best performing power plants in Pakistan.

Near the KANUPP base near the Karachi nuclear power plants (K-2 and K-3), two other units with a total installed capacity of 2200 MW are currently under construction.

The first batch of K-2 concrete was poured on August 20, 2015, and the first batch of K-3 concrete was poured on May 31, 2016. The construction of K-2/K-3 is in full swing and is at the final stage, with more than half of the civil work already in place. It is expected that functional testing of different K-2 modules will begin soon, and the plant is likely to be connected to the grid before the end of the year.

APEC has built another nuclear power plant in Chashma near Mianwali. The site is already home to four operating nuclear power plants. The unit is called C-5 and it will replicate the design features of K-2 and K-3. At present, a construction contract has been signed with China, and extensive on-site evaluation studies are underway. Editor/Huang Lijun