'Generation-three nuclear power plants to have passive safety systems'

The Japanese earthquake and tsunami have given a clear message that now generation-3 nuclear power plants will have passive safety systems and if there is an iota of doubt, every nation must take precautionary measures.
This was stated by renowned security analyst and chairperson of Strategic Technology Resources (STR), Dr Shireen Mazari while briefing media on Japan's nuclear crisis and its ramifications, here on Saturday.
She said that 130MW power reactor supplying electricity in Karachi is not fully operational at full capacity because of its age and is able to structurally cope with .23G. In any case, she added, the reactor is located on a rock 40ft above sea level and protected by it.
Mazari said that the four Chashma reactors, which are based on Westinghouse design with additional improvements such as hydrogen recombines-C1 (325MW) and CII (340MW) - this was connected to the national grid for testing only 12 days ago.
The other CIII, (340MW), she added, is supposed to come online in 56 months from now while CIV will come online after ten months after CIII. Pakistan has resorted to IAEA safeguard agreements, which reflect its civilian nuclear programme credibility, she maintained.
Mazari said that they did not ask for Indian style agreement, although it should have done so that it (India) could not escape clauses and other points to the benefit of the state. Pakistan has to consider Chinese on these issues, she added. However, these reactors have .25G impact factor and were constructed to cope with seismic activity of 6.5 as a result of Khisor fault in the area, Mazari explained.
She was of the view that one major threat that was anticipated emanates the busting of bid dams due to earthquakes - like Tarbela and Kalabagh (if built). Keeping this in view, she added, their base level was raised by two metres after the threat was noticed.
Commenting on Pakistan's safety measures in case of earthquakes or tsunami like Japan, Mazari said that there are twenty radiation monitoring centers in Pakistan but so far nothing unusual has been noticed by any of them. In addition, there are seven sample centers from Quetta to Peshawar.
One of the major problems in such disasters, she pointed out that there is no co-ordinated emergency plan between National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the nuclear regulatory body in Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), though the latter submitted a Nuclear Radiological Emergency Plan to NDMA last year, why the disaster management authority has been sleeping, this is a point to ponder.