Former chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Dr Ansar Parvez said on Tuesday that Pakistan must add 35,000 Megawatts (MW) of additional electricity if it is going to maintain the economic growth rate up to 6 percent or above by 2030. Also, he urged the government to pursue further option of nuclear power plants to cope with the power challenges, as the country has good track record of safe and successful operations of nuclear energy for more than four decades.
Addressing as chief guest during the opening session of a seminar titled 'Pakistan Peaceful Nuclear Technology and Politics of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)' here at a hotel he said nuclear energy has no environmental impact, there is no carbon emissions neither any threat to the climate change. He said the radiations which come out of nuclear power plants during normal operation are very small.
The event was organised by Rabita Forum International, a platform for promotion of social cultural and intellectual activities in Pakistan and abroad. "As the incumbent government sees a 5.8 percent economic growth in the next financial year, but it cannot go without ensuring adequate power supply to the industries," Ansar said.
He hopped that in 2018, there would be no load shedding, but he said one must understand that the existing power demand is a 'suppressed' demand because there are no industries being set up due to power crisis. But once the load shedding finishes and energy is supplied this demand will increase and the suppression will go away and the demand will go up much more.
The electricity growth should be at 1.5 percent of the gross domestic production (GDP), otherwise, it would not be possible to get any growth in GDP. The nuclear scientist said Pakistan should have an installed capacity of 55,000 MW of electricity to maintain economic growth rate in the next thirteen years. "We have to invest in future by pursuing Pakistan's nuclear programme," he said. We have to ensure the nuclear power plants operate well with high capacity factor and operate safely. We also have to make sure that we can provide security for the entire programme claiming our rightful place among the respected few countries that use nuclear programme not only for civil purposes but the defense purposes.
Recalling he said, Pakistan had established its first nuclear power plant, Kanupp, in 1972 and more than 45 years of its safe operation has provided confidence to the country to further the option of nuclear power plants, he said. The problem is that the capital cost of nuclear energy is very high but it's offset by the fact that its fuel cost is very low. The Chernobyl incident took place in 1986. World health report estimated no more than 15 to 20 people lost their lives due to release of radiations.
However, the basic lesson that the world learned from this incident was operator trainings in nuclear power plants. Many organisations were setup in the world and Pakistan too reemphasis on operator trainings on so many occasions. Also design charges were made so as to decrease the probability of the incident. Sharing a US data he said a person's likelihood of dying in a car accident in United States is one in 48,000, while chances of the person's dying in lightning is one in 14000, whereas probability of the K-II and K-III power plants after their latest design is one in 10, million, he said.
Ambassador (Retd) Najmuddin Shaikh, former secretary foreign affairs of Pakistan, Khalid Banuri DG ACDA SPD and others were also present on this occasion. Earlier, Chairman of Rabita Forum International Nusrat Mirza welcomed the guests and participants. Professors and students of international relations and political science subjects also attended the event.
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