Power and propaganda

Fearing Pak-China ‘nuclear’ friendship

While Pakistani armed forces are fighting a rugged battle in its mountains and cities to purge the country of coldblooded terrorists, and the government struggles to cope with energy shortage, lobbyists with vested interests and shady western links are now out to engineer a controversy over the country’s efforts to generate power with the help of its all-weather neighbour — China.

Covertly but surely, a hullabaloo is being wheedled over the Chinese pledge to build two nuclear reactors near Karachi to help the port city meet its growing energy demands. Karachi, the lifeline of the country’s economy, has been energy-deficient for years like other parts of the country with no remedy yet.

Energy shortage has not only forced shifting of around two million power looms of local textile industry to Bangladesh, but many industrialists have also shifted to India, a neighbour with a hostile history with Pakistan. Pakistanis also top the investors’ list in the United Arab Emirates while many industrialists have also shifted to Malaysia and Thailand due to the energy problem.

Bruised and weakened by its bleeding economy, Pakistan is fighting hard to overcome the challenge it faces in the energy sector. Assuming an average growth rate of 4.6 percent per annum, Pakistan would need 100,510 MWe of additional electricity during the next twenty years. Nuclear energy, hence, offers a greater capacity factor, lower cost and environmentally safer source than any other alternative.

Almost 65 percent of country’s power generation is based on thermal fuel such as Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) and High Speed Diesel (HSD). Both the procedures are highly expensive and involve non-renewable sources of generation.

Dependence on such fuels increases the cost of generation, which an under-developed state like Pakistan cannot afford. Moreover, thermal power generation has a negative impact on the environment due to excessive carbon oxide emissions, which result in climatic changes. Besides this, we are facing an acute shortage of gas as well.

Though Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline was a good initiative to help resolve the energy crisis, the government has almost dropped it due to the excessive US pressure. However, good news came when China decided to help Pakistan by unveiling its plans for installing six reactors, saying that even it will probably build more. Under the agreement signed, China would be upgrading Chashma-I and Chashma-II projects, aiming at doubling the size of the Chashma power plant, with two additional reactors under construction. Moreover, the Chinese government has also pledged to install Chashma-III (C-3) and Chashma-IV (C-4) besides two reactors, KANUPP-2 and KANUPP-3 near Karachi.

The power plant is being constructed under a joint venture between China National Nuclear Cooperation (CNNC) and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). The C-3 power plant is already under construction and, by 2016, both C-3 and C-4 will be able to add around 680 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid.

C-3 and C-4 are expected to come on line soon whereas the ground breaking ceremony for K2 and K3 was performed on November 26, 2013 by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Karachi’s upcoming plants will create 2,000 direct and 8,000 indirect job opportunities and contribute Rs11 billion directly to Pakistan’s economy. Compared to Pakistan by 2050, India would develop 200,000 MWe and China 400,000 MWe from nuclear energy. That indicates the viability, popularity, utility and safety on Pakistan’s borders and around the globe.

Moreover, the government is mulling installing more nuclear power plants and Muzaffargarh has already been chosen as a potential site. The proposal will be sent to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) soon for final approval.

Double standards of the West

Western lobbyists have started making noise, arguing that China was defying international norms on building new nuclear reactors in Pakistan. On the contrary, China insists that the technology is safe, citing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s completed safety review in January last.

The US has also joined the chorus, putting some opposition to China’s help to Pakistan as well. The US does not have a firm leg to stand on, with its credibility tarnished after having pushed through an exemption for India – another non-signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) – to allow American firms to export nuclear technology.

The critique against C-3 and C-4 projects is based on the assumption that Pakistan is not a signatory of the NPT, which they claim disqualifies it for any international help in building nuclear power plants.

However, this assumption holds no ground that the US has already granted a waiver to India which is also a non-signatory to the NPT like Pakistan. Actually, Pakistan has never refused to sign the NPT but it has made this conditional to the signing of the non proliferation protocol by India.

On the contrary, India has always refused to sign the NPT. However, the western media never argued why India had been refusing to sign the treaty. No criticism has ever been made regarding Indian nuclear ambitions despite the fact that India has a checkered history when it comes to the safety and security of its nuclear program.

Earthquake and tsunami prone sites in India and Japan selected for construction of nuclear plants are called safe by the world powers but safest sites like Chashma and KANUPP that have no dangerous leaking history, earmarked for nuclear energy sources twenty miles away from Karachi and at a practical height, are immediately linked with possibility of Tsunami.

Against the perceptions of Indian and the West regarding China’s support for Pakistan for construction of additional nuclear energy resources near Karachi, a small section of civil society, under western influence, has already developed an opinion to a factual and realistic awareness regarding Pakistan’s need of nuclear energy. It fully understands the misperceptions and overplayed external and internal half-truths over construction of K2 and K3 plants on Karachi’s coastline.

Though fears are being created about radiation, leakage and tsunami through a concerted propaganda campaign, they have been deliberately timed to coincide with the launching of major nuclear energy projects. The criticism about the design of the Chinese ACP-1000 reactors is overplayed because the design of all pressurised reactors are essentially the same and the only significant variation between diverse generations of reactors lies in their respective safety features and systems. Moreover, Karachi Development Authority rules clearly prohibit all housing society construction within 5km of KANUPP, which means there is no credence in criticism over the energy projects near Karachi.