Pakistan is working on the construction of two big nuclear reactors to generate electricity in Karachi. Each of the new reactors under construction will generate more electricity than all the other nuclear reactors operating in Pakistan put together. This will the biggest nuclear project that Pakistan has ever carried out. China will be designing and constructing these reactors for Pakistan. There is no available government analysis of whether these new reactors can provide electricity at a cost lower than other alternatives.
These new reactors are based on the ACP-1000 design which is still under development in China. There are no ACP-1000 reactors operating in China. Pakistan will have the first ACP-1000 reactors ever constructed. Because the ACP-1000 is still under development, there does not currently exist a complete design specification for these reactors.
There are critics of the new reactor project who say that there is no way to know if the ACP-1000 reactors being constructed will be safe and efficient. They are worried that the twenty million people in Karachi are going to be test subjects for the new design. There are more people within twenty miles of the construction site than the population around any other reactor site in the entire world. All of Karachi is within twenty four miles of the site. As the accident at Fukushima indicated, nuclear authorities tend to underestimate the possibility of major nuclear accidents as well as their ability to cope with major nuclear accidents.
To date, there have been no public hearing on how suitable the site is for locating a nuclear power station. There are no reports of any environmental impact statements for the new reactors. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority have no published plans for dealing with any major accident at the site. There are no details on the nuclear fuel cycle for the plant. It is unknown how long the highly radioactive spent fuel will remain on site or where it will go if and when it is removed from the site.
One independent study found that a radioactive plume released by a major accident would be blown by the prevailing winds into the most populated area of Karachi. There exists no public plan for the excavation of the millions of citizens of Karachi in the event of a major release of radioactivity. In the event of a major accident, there would be public panic which would cause the major roads to be clogged with people fleeing the city. This would prevent most of them from reaching safety for days.
In the event of a major accident, the cost of cleanup could be huge. Was this potential cost factored into the decision to build the reactors? If their new reactor design fails, will the Chinese help pay for the cleanup or will the people of Pakistan be expected to bear the entire cost?
Pakistan is considered to be the thirty fourth most corrupt country out of one hundred and seventy six countries in the world. With a lack of planning and transparency on the part of the Pakistani government, this widespread corruption could result in shortcuts being taken in construction and oversight of the new reactors. This sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
Artist's rendering of an ACP-1000 nuclear reactor:
