ISLAMABAD, 10 July — Leading physicist Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy has cautioned the country’s nuclear energy regulators against building a second nuclear power plant at Chashma.
Chashma II, touted by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission chief Pervez Butt as a miracle solution for the energy short country, is likely to drain the country of its limited foreign reserves, according to Hoodbhoy. “If the next plant built is of 600 megawatt capacity, it would absorb all our foreign exchange reserves,” he said.
But advocates of the nuclear energy plant say the energy requirements of Pakistan aren’t exactly going to diminish with time. In fact, they say, Pakistan would have to produce 52,000 MW by the year 2020.
According to government estimates, about 15,000 MW can be obtained through the hydro-electric process, while 15,000 MW and 7,000 MW can be drawn from coal and natural gas respectively. That means the country would still experience a shortfall of 15,000 MW. Such a gap can only be plugged by nuclear power plants, they say. Maybe so, says Hoodbhoy, but are PAEC officials ready to come clean about how the plant will be run. Hoodbhoy, dubbed a nuclear pacifist by the local media, has lobbied hard for greater transparency in running such power plants considering the grave environmental risks involved.
Nuclear safety is of paramount concern, according to Dr. Hoodbhoy, but neither officials nor the public fully understand how and where the vast quantities of radioactive waste would be disposed of. The Atomic Energy Commission has fiercely opposed proposals for an inspection by independent experts. The commission argues that nuclear technology is no child’s play and that such a proposed safety assessment can only be entrusted to those with considerable specialization.
