KARACHI, March 13: Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Parvez Butt has said that two more nuclear power plants will be set up in Karachi to cater to the growing energy requirements.

The plants, of 600 megawatts each, will be set up near the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp).

He was speaking as chief guest at the concluding session of the First National Conference on Engineering Education-2006 at the Expo Centre here on Monday.

Mr Butt said that the PAEC had been assigned to produce around 8,000MW of nuclear electricity for the enhanced needs for an accelerated economic development.

“The commission is successfully operating two nuclear plants while a third one, Chashnupp-2, is under construction. We have 35 years of safe operating experience at our credit and plan to build more nuclear power plants in the coming years to contribute to the energy requirements of the country,” he said.

Mr Butt said that the PAEC was assisting the industry in its growth and competitive capability by providing technical services. Over the years, it had built an extensive infrastructure for contributing to the economic uplift of the country.

He said that the commission’s activities covered an extremely wide spectrum i.e. from nuclear power generation to mineral development; from developing high yield disease resistant crops to the treatment of cancer; and designing and fabrication of industrial plants and equipment to human resource development.

Earlier, Kanupp General Manager Waqar Murtaza Butt said the PAEC had established its own institutes and centres to impart quality education through its BCS, masters and PhD degree programmes in the fields of informatics, systems engineering, nuclear engineering, nuclear medicine, medical physics, nuclear power engineering, materials engineering and process engineering.

He said that in the field of industry, it was playing a leading role in training and certification of welding and non-destructive testing inspectors. “Our mechanical workshops are being used by the local industry for substantial import substitution,” he added.—APP