PAEC, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has intensified its activities to meet the nuclear electricity generation target of 8,800 MW by the year 2030 set through government’s Energy Security Plan proposed in 2005.
PAEC, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has intensified its activities to meet the nuclear electricity generation target of 8,800 MW by the year 2030 set through government’s Energy Security Plan proposed in 2005.
According to Economic Survey 2019-20, the completion of K-2/K-3 project will be a big achievement that will bring PAEC 2200 MW closer to achieving the goal.
PAEC is also planning to create some additional sites to house more nuclear power plants in the coming future and sites identified throughout the country.
These sites are being investigated and acquired for development. Adequate technical and engineering infrastructure is already in a position to support both the existing and the under construction nuclear power plants.
Skilled manpower is being produced regularly by local institutes, transmitting state of the art training and education in all relevant disciplines and at all levels.
These tools are adequate to successfully support the predicted future plans envisioned by PAEC for the future nuclear power programme of Pakistan.
PAEC is the only department in Pakistan engaged in electricity generation using nuclear technology. A total of five nuclear power plants operating on two sites in Pakistan one unit namely Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) at Karachi and four units of Chashma Nuclear Power Plants (C-I, C-2, C-3 & C-4) at Chashma in Punjab.
The gross capacity of these power plants is over 1430 MW that supplied about 7,143 million units of electricity to the national grid during 1st July 2019 to 31st March 2020.
The first concrete of K-2 was poured on the 20th of August 2015 and that of K-3 on the 31st of May 2016. The construction of K-2/K-3 is active is its final stages with more than half of civil work already in place.
Functional tests of different modules of K-2 are expected to start shortly and the plant is likely to inaugurate the grid by the end of 2020. This unit will be called C-5 and it will replicate the design characteristics of K-2 and K-3. A contract for its construction has been signed with China and extensive studies for site evaluation are currently underway.