ISLAMABAD, 5 May 2004 — Pakistan and China signed an agreement yesterday to build a second nuclear power plant in Pakistan for civilian use. The deal was signed a day after a car bomb in southwest Pakistan killed three Chinese engineers helping to build a multimillion dollar seaport and injured 11 others including two Pakistanis.
Under the deal China will build a second plant at Chashma, some 270 km south of Islamabad, capable of producing 300-megawatts of electricity.
The agreement was signed by China National Nuclear Corporation president Kang Rixin and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission chairman Pervez Butt, an official statement said.
Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Chinese Vice Minister for Science and Technology Zhang Huazhu also attended the ceremony.
The $600 million C-2 (Chashma-2) project is likely to be completed in six years. A similar capacity plant built in Chashma with Chinese help became operational in 1999.
“The plant is for civilian use,” a Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission spokesman said. “Construction of C-2 will increase economic activity, employment opportunities for thousands of engineers and scientists,” the statement said.
“It will help in the expansion of industrial capability, enhancement of energy security... and reduced emission of atmospheric pollutants.”
Commissioning of the second unit would give Pakistan “a high degree of self-reliance in nuclear power technology,” it said.
The deal was to be signed in November when President Pervez Musharraf visited China but was delayed because further negotiations were needed on some technical aspects. An official involved in the negotiations, said Pakistani engineers will have more involvement in the latest project than in Chashma-1.
Chinese Consul General Sun Ghun Ye said despite yesterday’s attack none of the 400 Chinese workers and engineers would abandon the Gwadar project. China, Pakistan’s strongest and oldest ally, is financing some $200 million of the Gwadar project.
Pakistan has relied heavily on China for its defense needs since 1990 when the United States stopped supplying it with military hardware over its nuclear program.
Pakistan confirmed it had nuclear weapons in May 1998 when it matched tests conducted by India. The country’s first nuclear power plant was built in Karachi in the 1970s with Canadian help. It was shut down a few years ago, and Pakistan has recently decommissioned it.
