TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2002
China to aid Pak in setting up nuclear power plant
PTI
ISLAMABAD: A Chinese delegation on Monday told Pakistan that it would help set up the country's third nuclear power plant to overcome its energy shortage, a top Pakistani scientist said.
"China has shown its willingness to give us a new nuclear power plant," said Ashfaq Ahmad, head of Pakistan's Strategic Programme and one of the leaders of Pakistan's nuclear programme. "We have energy problems so we want to enhance the contribution of nuclear energy."
Ahmad on Monday met a delegation headed by Li Dingfan, chief of China's nuclear programme, to discuss proposals for setting up a power plant in the remote eastern Punjab town of Chashma, which would be the country's third.
A longtime ally, China is a leading supplier of weapons and defence technology to Pakistan. Pakistan's second power plant was built in Chashma, 225 km southwest of Islamabad, in the 1990s with Chinese assistance. The nation's first nuclear power plant was set up in Karachi in the 1970s with Canadian help.
Islamabad's plans to set up a nuclear power plant with China's aid comes amid reports that Pakistan provided assistance to North Korea a few years ago in its nuclear weapons programme. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has denied those reports.
On Monday, Ahmad insisted that Pakistan's nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes. The current Chashma plant has the capacity of generating 600 megawatts of power, he said.
Ahmad, the former chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energt Commission, said the government also plans to have a fourth nuclear power plant built in Karachi.