ISLAMABAD: Engineers and technicians of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) have completed Re-Fueling Outage (RFO) of nuclear power plant C-3 at Chashma in record minimum time of 26 days.

The PAEC said in a press release on Tuesday that this was first time in the country’s nuclear industry history that Pakistani engineers and technicians had completed RFO within shortest possible time.

The RFO of Pressurised Water Reactor is a routine requirement for replacement of fuel repair and maintenance after every 14 to 18 months which is normally completed in 60 to 79 days.

All six nuclear power plants of the PAEC are operational with optimum capacity factor, generating 3,560MW electricity in total and providing it to the national grid.

Four nuclear power plants at Chashma are supplying 1,340MW while K-2 and K-3 at Karachi are feeding 2,220MW to the national grid reaching 18.3 per cent of the total electricity generation from all sources.

Nuclear power generation in the country has proved to be reliable, cost-effective and above all zero-carbon emission electric source.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2022