Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on 8 September inaugurated Pakistan's fifth nuclear power unit – the 340MWe unit 4 at Chashma NPP (C-4). The CNP-300 Chinese-supplied pressurised water reactor will be operated on trial basis and will undergo a range of functional and safety related tests at full power. All four units at Chasma were built with Chinese assistance. Units, C-1, C-2 and C-3 have been in commercial operation since 2000, 2011 and 2016 respectively, and according to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission supply over 950MWe to the national grid with availability factors of around 99%. Currently, Pakistan’s four nuclear power units – K-1 (a 125MWe Canadian-supplied pressurised heavy water reactor, which has been in commercial operation at the Karachi NPP since 1972), C-1, C-2 and C-3 generate a total of 1,030MWe. Two larger 1,161MWe Chinese-supplied Hualong One units are under construction at Karachi – K-2 and K-3 and are scheduled to be operational in 2020 and 2021, adding another 2,200MWe to the national grid. The government of Pakistan is committed to adding 8,800MWe of nuclear energy to the national grid by 2030, Abbasi said today at the inauguration of C-4.
