Funds for an important PAEC project of exploration and mining of indigenous uranium for the country's commissioned and planned nuclear power plants have been withheld for being "unjustifiably" high, according to documents made available to Business Recorder. This is clearly a retrogressive step as it can frustrate the government's plan to expand the country's nuclear power generation capacity to 8,800 megawatts by the year 2030.
Studies are meanwhile in progress at six new sites for installation of additional nuclear power plants to overcome the energy crunch. The main objective of the project, called the "new mineral survey scheme," is to establish additional assured reserves of uranium and other nuclear minerals to meet Pakistan's nuclear fuel requirements.
The geo-scientific activities in 20 geological formations bearing uranium deposits would include regional geological surveys involving air-borne, ground radiometric, geo-chemical, geo-physical and remote-sensing techniques. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1085.392 million, including a foreign exchange component of Rs 486.018 million, with the project's duration being five years (2008-2013).
At present two nuclear power plants, ie Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (K-1) and Chashma Nuclear Power Plant unit-1 (C-1) are in operation, while the construction of a third power plant is in progress. K-1, after completing its designed life of 30 years, is operating at 90 Mwe. This project generates 342 million kWh of electricity, while C-1, a PWR type plant with a gross capacity of 325 Mwe, had generated 1,977 million kWh of electricity during July-March 2007-08. The commissioning of Chashma-2 is planned for 2011.
Launched in 1962, the nuclear mineral survey schemes have since developed physical and human resources, and have ensured uninterrupted supply of uranium and other raw materials for operation of the nuclear power plants. When operational, the nuclear power plants will help reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels, which at present stands at 44.1 percent gas and 20.2 percent oil for power generation.
What has generated deep concern in the country is that our fossil fuel reserves are undergoing rapid depletion, with the prices in international market exhibiting by and large an ascendant trend. Exploration and mining of uranium ore is a lengthy and cost-intensive process involving extensive field as well as laboratory work. PAEC is the only geo-scientific organisation in the country that has developed a nuclear project from discovery of uranium ore to the metal stage.
It requires sustained work by teams of scientists and technicians to reach the "yellow cake" stage. Further, specialised scientific apparatuses used for this purpose have to be imported, and the existing ones periodically replaced to ensure purity of nuclear fuel to get optimum operational efficiency of a nuclear power plant. The whole process is therefore cost-intensive.
An investment of Rs 1333.3 million, including a foreign exchange component of Rs 564.3 million has been made under various schemes, which has generated physical and human infrastructure responsible for discovery of 930 prospective sites, demarcation of 236 sites for detailed exploration while six sites are being exploited. Incidentally, the global energy mix has changed over the years.
There is a growing demand for oil in Asia due to higher rates of economic growth, and it has been estimated that the oil consumption of the Asian region will exceed that of North America by the year 2010. By 2020 the Asian demand will become nearly half of the world's total oil demand.
In Pakistan the consumption of petroleum products has increased at an average rate of 1.2 percent per annum, while the consumption of gas, electricity and coal has increased by 7.6 percent, 5.5 percent and 9.2 percent per annum, respectively. As prices of fossil fuels in the international market are very vulnerable, there is a growing realisation of the need to diversify the furl mix in power generation.
Further, nuclear fuel is considered a "clean" fuel, which is environmental friendly if all safeguards prescribed by IAEA are scrupulously observed. The only problem is the safe disposal of nuclear waste, because of its high level of radioactivity. However, it has been established that the nuclear waste can be safely disposed of in specialised containers by dumping them at sea etc.
There are many benefits of nuclear power: it is dependable, relatively inexpensive and clean energy, which should be harnessed to overcome the country's power shortages. In fact, there is an urgent need for the government to tap all available sources of energy to overcome the country's energy crunch, which has badly hit our economy.
The recent US-India pact on transfer of nuclear technology is likely to leave Pakistan far behind its regional competitor. Instead of withholding funds for this key PAEC project, the government should devote more funds for nuclear energy generation in the country. The government should see to it that funds for this key PAEC project are released forthwith.