Engineering Post Report
Three more nuclear power plants are under construction in Karachi (Sindh province) and at Chashma near Mianwali (Punjab province).
Two more units with a total output of 2200 MW are under construction near Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) in Karachi as K-2 and K-3.
First concrete of K-2 was poured on August 20, 2015 and that of K-3 on May 31, 2016. Construction of both these units is in full swing and in the final stages of their completion with more than half of civil work already in place. Functional tests of different modules of K-2 started in March 2020 as scheduled and the plant is likely to be connected to the national grid by the end of the year 2020.
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has also undertaken construction of another nuclear plant at Chashma near Mianwali. The site is already home to four operating nuclear plants. This unit will be called C-5 and it will replicate the design characteristics of K-2 and K-3. A contract for its construction has already been signed with China and extensive studies for site evaluation are currently underway.
PAEC has also intensified its activities to meet the nuclear electricity generation target of 8800 MW by the year 2030 set through the Federal Government’s Energy Security Plan formulated way back in 2005.
Ample technical and engineering infrastructure is already in place to support both the existing and the under construction nuclear power plants.
PAEC is also planning to develop additional sites to house more nuclear power plants in the future and probable sites are being identified in the country. These sites are being investigated and acquired for development.
The gross capacity of these five nuclear power plants is 1430 MW and about 7,143 million units of electricity was supplied to the national grid during July 2019 to end March 2020.
