NEPRA admits PAEC licence application

KARACHI: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has admitted the application of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) for consideration to grant a generation license for its 1,145MW Karachi Nuclear Power Plant – 2 (KANUPP-2).

The electricity generation unit that would use enriched uranium as fuel is expected to achieve commercial operations by November 2020. According to PAEC website, the 60-year levelised generation cost is estimated to be Rs9.59/kWh

There are no emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide during the production of electricity at nuclear energy facilities. Nuclear energy is a very clean-air source of energy that produces electricity 24 hours a day.

The ground-breaking of KANUPP-2 and KANUPP-3 was performed in 2013. KANUPP-3 is expected to come online by the end of 2021. Soon after that the 100MW Chasma-5 will be completed, as the country plans to generate 8,800MW of nuclear energy by 2030.

Nuclear power plants are reliable having high availability and capacity factor, they are relatively environment friendly, and provide sustainability of electricity price having low share of fuel cost. The share of nuclear energy in Pakistan’s generation mix stands at 6.0 percent producing power at an average cost of Rs9.13/kWh.

At the moment around 454 nuclear power plants are operating in 30 countries across the world constituting 11 percent of the world’s electricity generation, while 54 plants in 17 countries are under construction.

Pakistan is one of the countries in the world to operate a complete nuclear fuel cycle and is amongst 30 countries that have nuclear power plants in operation. The PAEC is a governmental scientific, engineering and research institution, concerned with research and development of nuclear power, promotion of nuclear power, energy conservation and the peaceful usage of nuclear technology.