Pakistan attracts funding to buy two China Nuclear reactors

The Pakistani nuclear market took a closer step towards growing its nuclear energy following news that Pakistan’s Executive Committee of the National Economic Council has approved funds to purchase two new nuclear power reactors from China, it has been reported by World Nuclear News.

The 1100 MWe ACP1000 units were together priced at PKR959bn ($9.6bn and will be supplied by China National Nuclear Corp. The reactors will be installed as part of the nuclear energy facility being built at the coastal Karachi site near Paradise Point in Sindh province about 25 kilometres west of the capital.

At present Pakistan has a 40-year old 125 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor at Karachi and another nuclear power plant at Chashma in northern Punjab province. This has two 300 MWe Chinese-built reactors operating with two more under construction, reported WNN.

The incoming ACP1000s are derived from the 900 MWe units that China imported from France in the 1990s. In April this year, Chinese authorities said they had full intellectual property rights over the design, had completed the phase of research and design review and would move their focus to construction and market development.

http://analysis.nuclearenergyinsider.com/new-build/weekly-intelligence-brief-11-–-17-july-2013