SWABI, Aug 17: The School for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SNRS) of the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA), Islamabad, and the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration in training and research in the area of nuclear power plant safety.

Jamshid Azim Hashmi, chairman of the PNRA, and Dr Abdullah Sadiq, rector of the GIK institute, signed the agreement on Thursday. Mr Hashmi led a five-member delegation which held talks with the GIK institute academics.

Under the agreement, the GIK institute will provide technical assistance to the SNRS in areas of stress analysis, fracture mechanics, ageing management of components and equipment, pressurised thermal shock, thermal hydraulics, thermal stratification, computational fluid dynamics and other mutually agreed fields.

They also agreed to provide consultancy and training through lectures, seminars, short courses and to carry out research and development activities in the agreed areas on a request of the SNRS. The GIK institute will assist in the establishment of laboratories at the SNRS.

They will designate coordinators for implementation of the agreement. The coordinators will meet twice annually, or as needed. The needs for training and safety research projects at the GIK institute will be determined by the SNRS. Any technical evaluation, advice and suggestion by the GIK institute will only be for reference of the SNRS.

The SNRS will provide to the institute material and documents required for training and education. The institute will invite the SNRS staff to lectures and seminars.

It was agreed that proprietary information will be treated as strictly confidential and if any dispute arises during the period of implementation of the agreement it will be settled through mutual consultations.

The agreement will initially be for five years, but it can be amended or extended by a written consent, or may be terminated at any time at the discretion of either party. “We can work together to develop valuable partnership and interact in research fields,” said Dr Sadiq. “We have limited design capability, but the Asia-Link project of the European Union and the Pak-US project will help us to improve in this area. These projects are a small step towards indigenisation in the designing field.”

Mr Hashmi said five nuclear power plants would be established with the help of China. Two of them would be set up in Chashma and three in Karachi. Four of the plants would be of 300MW each and one of 1,000MW capacity.