The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday barred Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) from commencing work on twin nuclear power plants in Karachi without adhering to the environmental laws.
Headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar, a division bench also issued notice to PAEC and Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) chairmen, Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa)’s director general, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pepa)’s chairman, and Environmental and Alternative Energy Department Sindh to file comments on a petition by November 11.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Dr Pervaiz Amirali Hoodbhoy and others who had approached the court challenging Sepa’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report that accorded its approval to establishment of two nuclear power plants in Karachi.
The counsel for petitioners submitted that PAEC had started preparing the site for two large nuclear power plants in Karachi namely K-2 and K-3 and each of these reactors will produce approximately 1,100 megawatt power.
He said the twin nuclear reactors would be designed and built by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). These reactors will be based on a design know as the ACP-1000. He said these types of reactors were not even operating in China as they only existed on the papers. This type of rectors will be used for the first time in Karachi.
He said the safety precautions which were required to be adopted by authorities were still unclear and uncertain posing serious threat to health and life of the people of the city.
The counsel said that nuclear accident at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011 and Ukraine’s Chernobyl in 1986 had raised serious concerns about the safety measures and required large-scale evacuation to save the people from deadly radioactivity blown from the nuclear plant. He told the judges that Karachi, which was densely populated, lacks infrastructure for mass evacuation in case of possible nuclear accident.
He stated that due to intensity of Fukushima approximately 1,50,000 people living in close proximity to the nuclear reactors were evacuated, adding that radiation contaminated the land to distances of over 30 km and food and water was found contaminated at distances of 250km.
The counsel submitted that PAEC had approached the Sepa for its approval on the project. Subsequently, it issued environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on the project while approving it. He argued that the EIA report was issued without complying with provisions of related environment laws as no public hearing was held regarding suitability of the site for the nuclear plants in Karachi.
Therefore, he requested the court to declare as illegal Sepa’s approval to the project and direct authorities to conduct public hearing and enlighten people of Karachi about the project before approving it.