BEIJING, March 9: China and Pakistan are finalising an agreement to build a second nuclear power plant for producing electricity, a spokesman of China's Foreign Office, Mr Liu Jianchao, announced on Tuesday.
China will help Pakistan to develop the Phase II of the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant for producing electricity, he told reporters here at the weekly news briefing.
He said safeguards for the Chashma-II reactor would ensure it is used only for generating electricity. The second 300 megawatt nuclear power plant will be built next to the first power plant which became operational in 1999.
"This project is for electricity generation only and will be subject to the safeguards and surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency," said Mr Jianchao. "At present the industrial departments of the two sides have had consultations on the details and will continue to hold some consultations on the project."
He said the China-Pakistan cooperation for development of the nuclear power plant, is purely for peaceful purpose and it has nothing do with the transfer of nuclear technology. The spokesman rejected allegations of any illegal deal between the two countries.
"Several years ago the two countries agreed to bilateral cooperation for the development of nuclear power plants for generating electricity," said the spokesman.
Commenting on reports appearing in a section of the press that China was providing nuclear assistance to Pakistan, Mr Liu Jianchao said that the China-Pakistan bilateral cooperation deal is purely for peaceful purposes and is confined only to power generation. This cooperation, he added, is also open to inspection by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He said the details of the cooperation was being worked between the relevant country's departments. It was also agreed that the relevant technology for power generation would not be transferred to any third party.
The two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding last year for setting up the second 300 megawatt nuclear power plant in Pakistan to be called Chashma-II. The MoU was inked in the presence of Pakistan's Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
To another question, the spokesman said China resolutely opposes the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems. China does not support and encourage any country to develop WMDs and their means of delivery.
China holds that the fundamental purpose of non- proliferation is to safeguard and promote international and regional peace and security, and all measures to this end should be conductive towards attaining this goal, he added.
The spokesman said China stands for the attainment of the non-proliferation goal through peaceful means. "We are prepared to cooperate with the relevant countries and organizations to check the export of nuclear weapons and technology as well," he said.
In recent years, he said, China has adopted a series of measures to step up controls on the export of such technology. "The measures we have adopted are now guaranteed by law and regulations. Now we are in the process of ensuring effective implementations of the relevant law and the regulations," the spokesman added. -APP/AFP
