[ RadSafe ] NPP safety in Pakistan

[Maury Siskel]

D A W N I n t e r n e t N e w s A l e r t
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Monday, 02 May, 2005
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The DAWN Internet NewsAlert (DINA) is a free daily news-service
from Pakistan's largest English language newspaper, the Daily
DAWN.
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Steps for safety of N-power plants

By Our Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD, May 1: The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has 
made it obligatory for licensees for nuclear power plants to prove that 
the probability of any release of radioactivity from their plants ‘is 
not more than one in a million years’. Besides, the licensees would also 
have to ensure that the probability of any damage to the reactor core 
‘would not be more than one in a hundred thousand years’, says an 
official announcement made by the PNRA on Sunday.

These targets are to be met by all new N-power plants to be installed in 
the country. Meeting these targets would make the chances of such 
incidents as small as of getting someone killed by a meteor falling on 
earth, said Zaheer A. Baig, head of the PNRA’s Information Services 
Directorate.

Pakistan plans to start a crash programme to generate 8,800mw 
electricity from nuclear plants by the year 2030 to meet its growing 
energy needs. At present, the country produces around 400mw of nuclear 
energy from its two power plants, one in Karachi and the other at 
Chashma near Mianwali.

Work on building another 300-mw nuclear power plant (Chashma-II) was 
taken up last month during the visit of Chinese prime minister to 
Islamabad. The Energy Security Plan for the next 25 years has been 
approved by President General Pervez Musharraf.

The PNRA is holding a training course in Islamabad from May 2 to 6 on 
‘Probabilistic Safety Assessment’ (PSA) in collaboration with the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Experts from the United 
States, Spain and Hungary would deliver lectures during the course to be 
attended by people from the PNRA and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.

Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PBA) is used for verifying and 
improving safety in nuclear power plants by identifying accident 
scenarios, detecting weak links, determining the consequences and 
prioritizing solutions. All this could be done while the plant was still 
in the design stage, Mr Baig said.

Various regulatory bodies from developed and developing countries are 
now using the PBA technique. The PNRA has decided to enhance the use of 
this technique in the country.

As by-product, the technique would ensure protection of nuclear power 
plants which were national assets built with considerable investments, 
he said.