Pakistan Opens Third Nuclear Plant With China's Assistance.

Published on Tuesday May 17 2011 (AEST)

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday inaugurated a 330-megawatt nuclear power plant built with Chinese assistance.

The plant is at Chashma in Punjab, where a Chinese-aided power plant of similar capacity is already operational.

“Today is a proud day for Pakistan and for Pakistan’s civil nuclear energy programme,” Gilani said as he commissioned the second unit.

“It is yet another illustrious example of the Pakistan-China cooperation in the field of nuclear science and technology,” he said.

Conctruction had begun on December 28, 2005 and was connected to the electricity grid on March 14, 2011.

The IAEA Board of Governors had unanimously approved the Safeguards Agreement between Pakistan and IAEA with respect to the Chashma-2 plant in November 2006.

Pakistan’s two research reactors (PARR-I & PARR2) and two nuclear power plants (KANUPP & CHASHMA-1) are already under the IAEA safeguards.

Chashnupp-2 is part of Pakistan’s “Energy Security Plan”, that envisages an increase in nuclear power generation from the current 425-megawatt to 8800-megawatt by the year 2030 to meet country’s growing energy demands.

Work on the Chashma-3 and Chashma-4 reactors with 300-megawatt each is also under way and will help add 600-megawatt to the grid.