Pakistan plans to end its reliance on foreign nuclear fuel supplies to run its atomic reactors by setting up a Rs 2,200-crore complex to enrich fuel from indigenous nuclear plants, a media report said on Monday.
The new Pakistan Nuclear Power Complex (PNPC), to be set up in Faisalabad, will also enrich the fuel from atomic reactors that the country plans to set up by 2030 to generate 8,800 MW of nuclear power.
Establishing the Nuclear Power Complex is a "basic step towards this very strategically important goal", an unnamed senior official was quoted as saying by the Pakistan Observer newspaper.
The executive committee of the National Economic Council, scheduled to meet on Monday, with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the chair, would approve the project to establish the PNPC, the report said.
The PNPC will provide "tested nuclear fuel" for the reliable operation of nuclear plants and help the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) in attaining 100 per cent capability in technology needed to manufacture pressurized water reactor nuclear fuels.
It will also act as a roadmap for "ultimately achieving the capability of fulfilling the requirement of one-third of fuel needed for nuclear power plants to be constructed by 2030", the report. Pakistan has been working to establish a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility since the early 1970s. The country has limited uranium deposits and has often depended on its strategic ally China for fuel supply.
The new project will comprise a "fuel fabrication plant and seamless tube plant-1, nuclear power fuel testing project and chemical processing plant".
"The unique project will help attain Pakistan indigenous capability in manufacturing nuclear fuel for power generation," the official said. The fabrication plant will lead to the development of "capability for indigenous fabrication of fuel assembly".
In the first phase of the project, the capacity of this plant would be 40 tonne, it said. The fuel fabrication plant will be operated at 70 per cent annual production capacity to meet the fuel rod requirements of Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-1 and Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-2 and will be installed in 60 months time at a cost of Rs 326.6 crore.
The new project also envisages the creation of infrastructure for producing structural materials like tubes and rods to be used by the fuel fabrication plant to manufacture nuclear fuel. This will be done seamless tube plant, which will be established in 60 months at a cost of Rs 270.7 crore.
Pakistan's currently depends on gas (44.1 per cent) and oil (20.2 per cent) for power generation. The country's energy security action plan envisages increasing the share of nuclear power from one per cent to 4.2 per cent by installing nuclear plants capable of generating 8,800 MW of power by 2030.
The report quoted the official as saying that the government is working on the 325 MW Chashma Nuclear Power Plant-2, which will be completed by 2010-2011. In addition, authorities are conducting feasibility studies for two more reactors at the Karachi Nuclear Power.
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