ISLAMABAD, June 9: The government has earmarked a capital outlay of Rs12.6 billion for atomic energy development in the 2007-08 federal budget which is a 29.8 per cent increase over the allocation of Rs9.7 billion in the outgoing year.

According to the budget documents, the allocations will be spent on research and development and general public services.

Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anwar Ali recently said that the government had assigned the commission the task of generating 8,800MW nuclear power by 2030.

The estimated capacity of each plant would be 1000MW, he said, adding that the joint maintenance and operations of such plants would be easy and economical.

He said that six sites were being considered in various parts of the country to set up the plants and the PAEC was in contact with multiple sources for negotiations to execute the programme.