Inauguration of Pakistan's largest Nuclear Power Plant K-2 at Karachi: Nuclear Power, The panacea for Pakistan's energy woes by Aftab Alam

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) proudly announced that after connection to the national grid in March, Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 (K-2) is going to be inaugurated formally. The Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) has added 1100 megawatts (MWs) of clean, reliable and cost-effective electricity in the generation capacity of the grid.

K-2 is the first NPP in Pakistan with generation capacity of 1100 MWs and its addition to the national grid will surely help reduce load-shedding especially during summers.

The K-2 NPP achieved criticality at the end of February this year and was undergoing certain safety tests and procedures before it could finally be connected to the grid in March. Whereas the loading of nuclear fuel onto the plant had started on 1st December 2020 after getting clearance from the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA). K-2 is one of the two similar NPPs located near Karachi to be inaugurated for commercial operation in May 2021. The other one, named Karachi Nuclear Power Plant Unit-3 (K-3), is also in completion phase and is expected to be operational in 2022.

PAEC is making a steady progress to meet the target set by the government of producing 8,800 MWs of nuclear power by 2030 and 40,000 MWs by the year 2050 for the county. Pakistan's nuclear power plants, including K-2 and nearing completion K-3, are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

After K-2 connection to the grid and inauguration of commercial operation, PAEC is now running six NPPs in the country. Two of them are located in Karachi and are named Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) and K-2, while four sited at Chashma, in district Mianwali are named Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 to unit 4. Earlier, the collective generation capacity of all PAEC-operated NPPs was around 1,400MWs. The coming online of K-2 will nearly double the generation capacity of nuclear power plants in the country, substantially improving the overall share of nuclear power in the energy mix.

If we have a look on the use of nuclear option by leading nation states of the world, France is currently having nuclear share of electricity generation of above 70 percent. World Nuclear Industry Status Report, shows, no country is as reliant on nuclear energy as France. It operated 58 reactors in 2019, second only to the United States' 97, and they accounted for 71.7 percent of total electricity generation.

The U.S. reactors had a 19.3 percent share of total electricity generation. After France, the countries that are most reliant on nuclear power are concentrated in Eastern Europe. Reactors generate between 50 and 55 percent of all electricity in Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary. Sweden is also high up on the list with just over 40 percent, with Belgium (39 percent) and Switzerland (37.7 percent) close behind.

As far as Pakistan is concerned, its nuclear power program is still at a nascent stage despite having demonstrated an unblemished record of smoothly running its nuclear power plants for over four-and-a-half decades.

Pakistan's NPPs have also bagged certain records of performance that reflect on their efficiency. Pakistan's Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 made a national record in the country's history in 2020 by running for a year continuously, becoming the second electricity generation plant of the country to achieve this milestone. Previously, Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit-4, had made the record of running for continuous 365 days, on July 1, 2020. The record of efficient and safe operations of Chashma-2 along with earlier record of Chashma-4 speaks volumes of the acumen and hard work of PAEC's teams of technicians, scientists and engineers.

As far as cost effectiveness of these NPPs is concerned. The figures are very encouraging in comparison with other competing sources of energy production. Chashma Nuclear Power Plants (C-1 to C-4) are producing electricity at an average tariff of Rs. 11.16/kWh, while operating at above 95% of Capacity Factor.

Nuclear Power is the future of Pakistan for being cheapest baseload energy source. It is environmentally less harmful for nearly zero emission levels and most importantly the nuclear fuel is strategically viable for long-term storage as fuel for over one-year operation of nuclear power plants can be stored at the site, unlike furnace oil.

In short, Nuclear Power can rightly be labeled as the panacea for all the energy woes of the country. It is high time we embrace nuclear power with open arms because in Pakistan's energy mix, it deserves a far better and prominent place than it currently occupies.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021