It may be just a minor milestone for civil society to convince the Sindh High Court to order Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to stop work on two nuclear power plants in Karachi till case against PAEC is concluded but it’s a long way to go as the case challenges a number of stakeholders in this business deal. Civil society petitioners, which include few renowned nuclear scientists as well, have raised some quite valid questions. Why will these nuclear plants, known as K-2 and K-3, be equipped with ACP-1000 type reactors which is not even a prior proven design? Petitioners questioned why the was Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared without inviting public participation and opinion, and why was this report kept secret from public for some ‘unknown’ reasons?
Needless to point out that Karachi, a city of 21 million people, is no way prepared to handle even a large scale fire or moderate earthquake. A nuclear disaster such as one that happened in Chernobyl in 1980s or a recent one in Japan, will be a dreadful nightmare for the Karachiites.
Apparently all the business deals, to the tune of 10 billion dollars, have already been signed. Therefore, it may not be an easy task for the court and civil society to put a spanner for a long time. But in case of a nuclear disaster it will be a matter of life and death for a city which is presently not in a desert but will become a mass graveyard and a permanent desert for the centuries to come. One may presume that better sense will prevail and Karachiites will not be subjected to nuclear experiments on unproven reactor designs.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia