ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The government has decided to introduce the latest technology to ensure greater quality control and assurance in the country’s defence and nuclear establishments.

Informed sources told Dawn on Friday that the federal government would provide “special funding” to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to launch a new programme by importing required equipment through local agents of relevant companies.

It is said that the European Union (EU) countries, South Korea, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand possess the technology that Pakistan needs to achieve enhancement of process efficiency and plant safety in the defence industry.

“This needs stringent quality control assurance programme for industrial plant components, materials and products. This requires proper examination, evaluation and characterization of components and materials at development stage and their performance during plant use,” the PAEC argues.

Latest technology will help contribute to making development, manufacturing and supply of products and services more efficient, safer and cleaner.

In view of the future WTO regime, only the quality products at reasonable cost will survive the competition in international trade.

The proposed facilities are not intended for leasing purposes. However, services to industry will be provided on request/ commercial basis by the PAEC.

The end users of the project are the PAEC, defence forces, chemical industry, petrochemical industry and the process industry.

The project falls in the science and technology sector and its implementation will lead to “tremendous socio economic benefits to Pakistan”.

The project “Real-time Imaging and Process Visualization” is also for the detection of location of defects inside industrial components as well as nuclear fuel to improve product quality. It also aims at visualizing industrial processes and investigating anomalies in industrial systems (packed columns, fluidized bed reactors, trickle bed reactors, bubble columns, etc.) for process investigation and trouble-shooting.

Real-time industrial tomography would help investigate the root causes of various defects in industrial and defence components and processes. It is very important to investigate industrial processes on-line. “This saves huge amount of money because it provides online process analysis without plant shutdown. Industrial tomography of process columns helps identify problems through real time visualization of plant internals,” pleads the PAEC before the government, seeking all the required financial and moral support for the project.

The PAEC maintains that the basic infrastructure and technical manpower is already available at the Pakistan Institute if Nuclear Science and Technology (PINTECH). But it said real time imaging and online process visualization facilities are lacking in the institute. “Real-time imaging and on-line process visualization are the most modern techniques for material examination, evaluation and process diagnostics,” the PAEC said.

Establishment of the proposed facilities, the PAEC believed, would result in huge savings to national industry, contributing to the economy. This technology has got high benefit to cost ratio and as a result it has a potential of commercialization.

The proposed facilities could also be used for the training of students from the Pakistan Institutes of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), scientist, universities and various other research organizations.