Nuclear plant completes decade of ‘good performance’

[Mirage2000]

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Nuclear plant completes decade of ‘good performance’

By Amin Ahmed
Friday, 22 Oct, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Oct 21: The first unit of Chashma nuclear power plant completed a decade of good performance on Thursday, enabling the government to approve new projects in the nuclear power sector to achieve the 8800MW target set by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

At a commemorative ceremony held at Chashma it was said that CHASNUPP-1 had achieved a high capacity factor during 2009 and its capacity and availability factors after the sixth refuelling outage were 93 per cent and 98 per cent, respectively.

Speaking on the occasion, the Director-General of the Strategic Plans Division, Lt-General (retd) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, praised achievements of the plant and especially efforts by its personnel to indigenise the plant’s operation and maintenance.

He also praised the support given by China for the nuclear power programme of Pakistan.

The plant has been operating safely and six re-fuelling operations have been carried out so far. During the re-fuelling outages, inspections, maintenance, design modifications and periodic tests were carried out.

The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has kept the plant under continuous regulatory surveillance.

The plant is now in the process of conducting Periodic Safety Review as per regulatory requirement for renewal of operating licence after 10 years of operation.

The review is expected to be completed by December 2010.

Meanwhile, the civil construction, equipment manufacturing and installation of the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant Unit-2 (C-2) has been completed, and the PNRA has given approval to the programme which was reviewed under the regulatory requirements and operating experience feedback from Unit-1.

The commissioning is now in progress and Unit-2 has submitted the final safety analysis report.

A review of the report is expected to be completed by November.

As part of a plan to build additional nuclear power projects to meet energy requirements, Pakistan has developed infrastructure for manufacturing components of nuclear installations including safety class 2 and 3 and non-safety class components for the projects.

The country’s present installed electricity generation capacity is 21,450MW. Nuclear power supplied by the PAEC and renewable energy play a relatively small role in supply at present since the share of nuclear power in the total generating capacity is 462MW which is merely 2.15 per cent of the total capacity.

DAWN.COM | Front Page | Nuclear plant completes decade of good performance

[somebozo]

Chasma power plant is a tribute to Pak-China friendship!

[sergente rehan]

Good news. These nuclear plants can play a vital role in coping our energy needs. We must deal with China in this field as western and U.S are hesitating or posing unacceptable conditions in exchange for a possible civilian nuclear deal.

[gohar321]

Good news. These nuclear plants can play a vital role in coping our energy needs. We must deal with China in this field as western and U.S are hesitating or posing unacceptable conditions in exchange for a possible civilian nuclear deal.

they have no intention of providing us the civilian nuclear deal. as far as china is concerned, during the recent visit of president zardari, every thing was discussed except the civil nuclear deal.

[Dreamreaper]

I think Pakistan can now build and operate Nuclear power plants on its own without any foreign help..Thats the only way out of the current power crisis which is severely damaging economy.

[huzihaidao12]

they have no intention of providing us the civilian nuclear deal. as far as china is concerned, during the recent visit of president zardari, every thing was discussed except the civil nuclear deal.

I will suggest you read the news, China and Pakistan have reached such an agreement.

[naumananjum]

Kanup 2 ,3
and
Chashma 4
had already palned in association with china
.
i dont know why KANNUP 2 goes late

[VCheng]

I think Pakistan can now build and operate Nuclear power plants on its own without any foreign help..Thats the only way out of the current power crisis which is severely damaging economy.

Leaving aside the power generation side of things, Pakistan CANNOT manufacture the pressure/containment vessels or other critical core-related metallurgical components.

However, Pakistan can design NPPs very well, and has complete mastery over the front end of the fuel cycle, thereby having the ability to operate NPPs on its own. It also has extensive enrichment expertise, but no reprocessing abilities.

[naumananjum]

Pkaistan is manufacturing many parts of NPP in HMC-3

[VCheng]

Local manufacture of many components has been carried out for years in Pakistan, but not the ones that I have mentioned, to date.

[Markus]

Running a nuclear plant @ 98% efficiency is indeed a good performance!

[Dreamreaper]

Leaving aside the power generation side of things, Pakistan CANNOT manufacture the pressure/containment vessels or other critical core-related metallurgical components.

However, Pakistan can design NPPs very well, and has complete mastery over the front end of the fuel cycle, thereby having the ability to operate NPPs on its own. It also has extensive enrichment expertise, but no reprocessing abilities.

Thanks for the info..If Pakistan cannot reprocess nuclear waste and re-use it,then whats the point in sticking to pressurized Heavy water reactors...Perhaps they should shift to the non pressurized version which cannot use recycled fuel and only used enriched type.

[Last Hope]

Another sucessful 'experiment' by Pak-China

Hoping for more!

[VCheng]

Thanks for the info..If Pakistan cannot reprocess nuclear waste and re-use it,then whats the point in sticking to pressurized Heavy water reactors...Perhaps they should shift to the non pressurized version which cannot use recycled fuel and only used enriched type.

Good point, but the reason for staying with PHWR/PWR designs is that almost all of the commercially available units, including tohse from China, are of this type.

PAEC can design other types of reactors too, but translating that design into an actual physical NPP is not feasible because of supply monopolies and sanctions, as well as limited domestic production capabilities.

[Dreamreaper]

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Good point, but the reason for staying with PHWR/PWR designs is that almost all of the commercially available units, including tohse from China, are of this type.

PAEC can design other types of reactors too, but translating that design into an actual physical NPP is not feasible because of supply monopolies and sanctions, as well as limited domestic production capabilities.

Might be worth the effort as they will save loads of money by not using heavy water.