ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) achieved a major milestone in its pursuit for clean and reliable energy by successfully making critical (operating at a steady power level) the Unit-2 of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (K-2).
The Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) achieved criticality at 2359hrs PST on the night between Sunday and Monday. The 1,100MW NPP will go through certain safety tests and procedures before it is joined to the national grid by the end of March. It is pertinent to mention here that K-2 is the first NPP in Pakistan with generation capacity over 1000MWs and will help reducing loadshedding in summers by generating environment friendly, affordable and reliable base load electricity for the country.
K-2 is one of the two similar under-construction NPPs located near Karachi and will be inaugurated for commercial operation by the end of May this year.
The other one K-3 is also in completion phase and expected to be in operational in 2022.
PAEC was previously running five NPPs in the country (one at Karachi and four at Chashma) with collective generation capacity of nearly 1,400MWs. Hence the K-2 NPP’s addition will almost double the generation capacity of nuclear power plants of the country, improving share of nuclear power in the overall energy mix.