ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Special Advisor to the President on strategic studies Dr Ishfaq Ahmad on Wednesday said that the design life of the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) was extended for another 20 years through indigenous efforts.
The Kanupp has completed its design life of 30 years but the Pakistani scientist managed to increase its life for another 20 years, Dr Ishfaq said while delivering a lecture on sustainable development and nuclear technology. The lecture was arranged at a colloquium by the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS).
“Nuclear power plants never retires as the continuous running of these plants is always advisable since its decommissioning is hazardous environmentally,” the former chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) observed.
The nuclear technology has the ability to contribute in a significant manner to address all issues of sustainable development, he said adding that it was essential in the Pakistani perspective for increasing electricity demand for the development, existing infrastructure and manpower.
He also suggested to look for new designs of the nuclear power plants which were safer than the old designs.
About the importance of nuclear technology for power generation, he said that the world population was likely to grow in the coming decades creating energy demand at the much faster rate. The existing renewable energy resources could not meet this demand. “In the present circumstances, we have no other option except to use nuclear power,” the renowned scientist observed.
At the current rate of consumption, the world oil reserves would deplete within 40 years, while gas in 60 years whereas the coal reserves would remain for 200 years but then it has adverse environmental impact affecting the global warming. On the other hand world uranium reserves would remain available for 150 years while the throium cycle technology for several thousands years.
He said that 16 per cent of the world electricity generation was through nuclear for which about 438 nuclear power plants were operating in 30 countries.
However, he emphasized that strong governmental commitment was the key factor for the sustainability of nuclear power plants in addition to continuous availability of trained manpower, long term economic viability with sustainable supply of fuel.
He quoted the example of USA, which was facing the dearth of trained manpower. “The US government is asking the universities to include nuclear sciences in their curriculum and to run the plants for the time being, they are recruiting US Navy retired personnel having the experience of running nuclear powered submarines or ships,” he said.
Besides the Americans have also doubled the lives of their nuclear power plants, in many cases, even upto 100 years.
Through strict discipline and effective waste management and storage, nuclear power plants could be made safer and reliable adding that no other large-scale technology being used worldwide has the similar safety record than the nuclear technology. “There are 9000 reactor years of operation with remarkable lack of problems,” he recalled.
He deplored that there was a dearth of science and technology needed to address critical problems of development in the developing countries as the science and technology was either too little or too weak in these countries.
While mentioning non power application of the nuclear technology, he said that nuclear technology had many applications in different areas of human development such as food and agriculture, medicine and health, water resources and industry.
The radiation induced mutations produced high yield crops, early maturing with improved resistance to drought and salinity, he said.