Country''s total nuclear power generation capacity is 400 Mega Watt (MW) that accounts only 0.8 percent of the total power generation of 19,540MW. According to a report published in a monthly, ''Energy Update'' in the last 35 years of nuclear research, the country is not yet able to produce nuclear electricity at its own.
As a result, it remains far behind the target of economically viable nuclear power generation that comes only when every plant is capable of producing 1000MW or above.
This is the crucial point where the country feels hurt because of the US-India nuclear deal. With this deal, India would make a quantum jump by setting up nuclear power plants having 1000MW and above capacity. Pakistan''s all weather-friend, China, that helped Pakistan in setting up Chashma-1 and now Chashma-II, itself is not capable to put up plant of more than 600MW capacity.
Country''s first ever nuclear power plant -Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp-I) - installed in 1971 has lost drastically its generating capacity from an original 137 megawatt to only 40 megawatt now and remains closed in major part of the year as the authorities concerned could not maintain it over the years.
The second plant, Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (Chashnupp-1) started supplying about 300MW to the national grid in September 2000 but it is among the most expensive power plants in Pakistan in terms of its tariff. The third plant, Chashma-II is currently in the construction phase and is expected to be ready by 2011.
The radical drop in the power generation capacity of Kanupp-1 is sufficient to prove the authorities'' incompetence in this field. Now, the government is also planning to install Karachi Nuclear Power Plant-2 (Kanupp-2) with a generation capacity of 600 MW with the help of China.
Negotiations are under way for the purpose. 2019 will retire Kanupp-I and the dismantling of the plant, keeping in view the nuclear emissions factor, will be a test case of the ability and capacity of country''s nuclear regulatory authority.
The authorities concerned are trying to increase its generation capacity to the extent possible and within days it could be able to enhance its generation capacity to inject more power in the city''s system, which is facing electricity deficit.
It is strange why the authorities concerned have wasted too much time in enhancing the generation capacity of the nuclear power plant, which has actually been reduced from 137 MW to 40 MW.
However, at long last, the authorities concerned have made a plan to attain the generation capacity up to 70 to 80 MW as it is not possible to retrieve the total generation capacity lost because many of the parts being used in the plant have become outdated. In this connection, the authorities are in talks with the Canadian government for importing some key parts of the plant.
The country plans to increase nuclear power generation capacity to about 8,800MW by 2030. The government has already selected six sites in the first phase to install more nuclear power plants to materialise the plan to increase the country''s capacity to generate 8,800MW nuclear power by 2030. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has selected six sites for the purpose in line with the recommendations of the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The government has recently approved funds for the feasibility studies.
The PAEC has selected six sites for installation of more nuclear power plants (NPPs) that include (1) Qadirabad-Bulloki link canal near Qadirabad headworks (2) Dera Ghazi Khan canal near Taunsa Barrage (3) Taunsa-Punjnad canal near Multan (4) Nara canal near Sukkur (5) Pat Feeder canal near Guddu and (6) the Kabul river near Nowshera.