THE recent leakage of heavy water at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant has raised legitimate questions about the plant's safety and utility. Following the leakage late Tuesday, Kanupp has been shut indefinitely. Officials maintain the incident was “not serious” and that the plant and its surrounding areas remain safe. Yet no inquiry has been ordered into the incident. This is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the plant, which supplies Karachi with about 80MW of electricity. There was major heavy water leakage in 1989 while an incident has also been reported from the early 1980s. Environmentalists have rightfully termed the latest incident a “wake-up call”. Built by the Arabian Sea in the early 1970s, Kanupp's surroundings were initially sparsely populated. But with Karachi's rapid expansion housing colonies have begun to sprout in the vicinity. As the facility often remains shut — as it was at the time of the incident — it has been labelled unproductive and there have been calls to permanently close Kanupp down.

The plant completed its 30-year lifespan in 2002 and since then it has been given several extensions; current reports suggest the government wants to keep it running for a few more years. Kanupp was built with Canadian help, yet due to Pakistan's pursuance of its nuclear programme foreign help soon dried up. Since then, operations and maintenance of the facility have been performed locally. It is to the credit of local scientists and technicians that they kept the plant running despite the cessation of foreign assistance. Yet in light of the recent leak and considering the plant's age, Kanupp's time appears to be up and it should be decommissioned. Regarding Pakistan's energy crunch every megawatt counts, so perhaps the country — with international help — should build new nuclear power facilities so that it does not have to rely on such unpredictable plants. Ultimately, if such safety lapses are ignored and the authorities remain complacent, a major tragedy could occur causing havoc for plant staff, the surrounding localities as well as marine life. The state must act to avert such a scenario.