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China to help Pakistan build five new NPPs by 2030

TOKYO, January 02, /ITAR-TASS/. Pakistan intends to build five new 1,100-megawatt nuclear power plants (NPPs) by 2030 with Chinese assistance, the Kyodo Tsushin said on Thursday, January 2.

The agency quoted Ansar Parvez Parvez, chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, as saying that four nuclear power plants of 325-340 MW capacity and seven nuclear power plants of 1,100 MW capacity would be in operation by 2030 to meet the government’s medium-term target of 8,000 MW of nuclear-generated electricity.

He also said sufficient funding should be available to achieve that goal, given existing electricity tariffs in Pakistan and loans to be issued by China, Kyodo reported.

In late November 2013, Pakistan started building two 1,100 MW nuclear power plants 40 kilometres from Karachi. A part of the funding (6.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the project estimated at about 10 billion U.S. dollars has been provided by China.

Pakistan has three running NPPs - two of them, with a capacity of 325 MW each, are located in Chashma, Punjab province, about 285 kilometers southwest of Islamabad. The third plant, generating about 100 MW of electricity is near Karachi, is expected to be decommissioned by 2019.

Two more 340 MW nuclear power plants are under construction at Chashma now.

The government of Pakistan has set the goal of increasing electricity generation in the country to 40,000 MW by 2050.