Asian News International

Islamabad, February 14, 2006|16:11 IST

During his China visit beginning on Sunday, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is likely to seek further cooperation from Beijing in installing more nuclear power plants in Pakistan to achieve the target of 8500 MW nuclear power by 2030.

The help would be sought after the reluctance shown by the US and other European countries for extending facilities of two-three nuclear reactors, each having capacity to generate 1000 or 2000 MW electricity, Pakistan government sources said.

"President Pervez Musharraf will take up this issue of paramount importance with Chinese counterpart during his forthcoming visit to Beijing that is to start from 19th of this month," The News quoted the sources as saying.

They said that since the government was already facing stiff opposition from the US on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, owing to the Iran's determination to enrich uranium, Islamabad is left with no option but to get more cooperation from China.

This is despite the fact that Beijing has the maximum capacity to install a nuclear plant of 600 MW, while the US and France have the capacity to install one plant of 1500-2000 MW

The sources further said that the demand of more civic nuclear cooperation, which Musharraf would will seek, would help achieve the target of achieving 8500 MW of nuclear power by 2030 set by the Pakistan government.

Pakistan's current nuclear power capacity stands at 437MW that include 137 MW of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KaNuPP-1) installed by Canada and 300 MW by Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (ChashNuPP-1) installed by China, the sources said.

Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in their last visits to the US had taken up the issue of civil nuclear cooperation keeping in view the agreement between the US and India on nuclear power plants, but the authorities concerned in the US remained 'unmoved', said the sources.

Similarly Pakistan sought the nuclear power technology from France and Italy, but the response is reported to be 'very cool.' The government is likely to again seek nuclear power technology from USA during the visit of President George Bush sometime in March.

8000 MW More in 25 years

that averages to an increase of 320 MW on average each year, one new chasma sized plant each year (in terms of power generation)
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If nuclear power is 437MW or about 2.7% of the total energy generation of the total natioanl energy generated

the total is between 16,000-17,000MW
these power plants will add 8000MW, and the dams will probably add another 8000MW at least

the new dams and nuclear power plants should double the energy generated, it could lead to a cut in the need to use oil or natural gas (these equal around 70-80% of energy generated)

China is building 3 domestic 1000MW-level N-power generators in the power plants in Guangdong, Liaoning and Shangdong provinces

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2238/2005-12-16/118@287868.htm
http://english.people.com.cn/200512/27/eng...227_231027.html

It is very surprising that having the experience of operating a nuclear power plan (KANUPP) from 1972, Pakistan cannot make a new one, even based on that old technology. CANDU reactors, such as the one in use at KANUPP, are operating all over the world and are so cheap to maintain. Pakistan should opt for this technology. The CANDU reactor at Darlington, Ontario has over 3600 MW capacity with only 4 reactors. Instead of going for small ones, we should build only a couple of big nuclear plants with multiple reactors, so the maintainance would be easy. More surprising is the fact that Pakistan is supposed to have such a large pool of engineers and nuclear scientists, yet we cannot make one civillian nuclear plant for ourselves and have to knock the doors of so many countries to make one for us.

we dont have infrastructure to build machines necessary for plant. even for kahuta metals came wielded according to diagrams provided by the engineers. yup believe it or not. we risked the exposure of operation cause we couldnt wield them together. and thats because we simply did not have ability. we are not alone here. even indians have the same problem.

oh and running a nuke plant and making it are two diferrent sciences. its like expecting a software engineer to be a great pc user. (they are not). in fact pc geeks are better pc user. but that doesnt mean they are better software engineer.

ok simple example. pakistan made A bomb right. well have we produced any pc chip. alright that might not sound related. ok lets try something related. how many kind of engines does pakistan produce?

we made Al-Khalid right. but do u make engine for it? i mean we have all the mech eng. why cant we make one engine?

there are some tech involved to make holes in metals. these techs. are not available in pakistan yet. also we are getting the help of more experienced professionals with right tools and machinery. so in future we will be able to make it. until then get help from others.

aquring this technology is very difficult it requires, metallurrgy, material engineering, chemical engineering , nuclear enginereing and nucleaear physicists , mechanical engineering, aerodynamic engineering n hell loads

I remember reading a report in Jang or Dawn in which a minister or a nuclear scientist in Pakistan stated that we could build our own Nuclear reactors!!!

After exhaustive googling I found the article in Dailytimes. . . http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...-11-2003_pg7_28

So what has happened to this great boast by Dr Attuar???

Also while searching for that article I found other interesting article about China’s “indigenous” nuclear reactor program . . .

http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/...chinacanit.html

It is a very old article however it raises some very interesting points. I wonder who eventually did supply the parts that Germany and Japan were supplying China?

My greatest fear is, as we cannot get hold of the hi-tech and efficient (my opinion), Western reactors we are going to buy mid-tech inefficient Chinese one and then get stuck with huge amounts of nuclear waste! A problem even the western countries have not been able to solve. Therefore they have focused on making their reactors as efficient as possible to minimise the waste.
However saying all this Pakistan just dose not seem to have a choice. Ever normally friendly countries (will sell to anyone with money) like France and Italy have said no to us. While everyone is all too happy to help India!
Makes my blood boil!!!

Ehsan

pakistan should go for the 1000MW level chinese power plants, each costs $1.4 Billion as the second chinese article suggests

8 of these plants would costs $11.2 Billion, it would probably be alot easier than 25 smaller plants, each costs $600 Million or $15 Billion total

China is building commerical very－high－temperature gas－cooled reactors(VHTR) in Shandong province. This will be the first commercial VHTR in the world. (China built a trial reactor with capacity of 10 MW at Tsinghua University in Beijing ).

The capacity for the commercial reactor is 200 MW for each with cost of 3 billion RMB, or less than US$ 0.4 billion. China will build 20 reactors for the power plant in Shandong province. Looks like cost is higher. But it will be cheaper if more are built.

VHTR has high efficiency, much higher safety standard and minimum nuclear waste.

Two nuclear power plants sought from China




By Ihtasham ul Haque

ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: Pakistan wants two more 325-MW nuclear power plants from China to meet its growing energy needs. Sources said on Wednesday that President Gen Pervez Musharraf would take up the issue with the Chinese leadership during his visit to China beginning next Sunday.

Asked if China’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) could be a hurdle in concluding a deal, the sources said, that the Chinese official, who represented his government at the concrete-pouring ceremony for Chashma Nuclear Power Plant II last year, had promised continued help to Pakistan in the civilian use of nuclear energy.

The 45-member NSG comprises nuclear supplier countries who seek to contribute to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons through implementation of guidelines for nuclear exports and nuclear-related exports.

Sources said the US had also been formally approached to provide nuclear power plants. The issue would now be raised when President Bush visits Pakistan next month.

Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Perwaiz Butt said Pakistan was an energy-deficient country and needed nuclear power to meet its future electricity needs.

“We must build nuclear power plants for our economic development,” he said. Referring to Chashma-1, he said, was being run safely and efficiently.

“And as such we are the right kind of candidate for more nuclear power plants”, Mr Butt asserted.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/16/top15.htm


Hmmm they don't seem to be going for the 1000MW ones. Also we need plans to builds reactors on a large scale to meet the 8,500MW by 2030.


Ehsan

they have to start small, right now they go for the 325MW ones, then in a couple of years, an order for two 1000MW reactors to be built over 5-7 years, would allow the nation to stick to the 8500MW plan

small steps, slow and steady