MONDAY, MAY 3, 2004
Pak, China sign nuclear plant deal
REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China on Tuesday signed a deal to build a new nuclear power plant, underlining economic cooperation between the longtime allies a day after a car bomb killed three Chinese technicians in southern Pakistan. Officials from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the China National Nuclear Corporation participated in the signing ceremony, witnessed by Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali, in an agreement experts valued at around $600 million.
"With the signing of the C-2 (Chashma-2) project, PAEC has achieved yet another landmark and this project will be an important milestone in historical relations between Pakistan and China ," a statement distributed at the ceremony said.
Pakistan will be keen to underline close ties with China following the attack at Gawadar port, which Islamabad saw as a strike at the heart of investor confidence and its broader economic interests.
A car bomb was triggered by remote control as a minivan carrying 12 Chinese and two Pakistanis passed by. Besides the three dead, nine Chinese and two Pakistanis were wounded.
More than 300 Chinese nationals are working to turn Gawadar into a deep sea port and major trading hub, and China is providing $198 million of the $248 million project costs.
The statement said the second nuclear plant to be built by China at Chashma was for peaceful use only, after a nuclear proliferation scandal involving a top Pakistani scientist set alarm bells ringing over the safety of the country's atomic programme.
"It is worth mentioning that Pakistan 's nuclear power plants are under the safeguards of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), which is the international agency responsible for monitoring and safeguarding of nuclear power plants," it said.
The new power plant will be built at Chashma, on the banks of the Indus river, 280 km south of Islamabad and beside the first plant China helped to build. It will have a capacity of 300 megawatts and take more than six years to complete.
The first Chashma nuclear installation was built in 1999 and connected to the national power grid early in 2000.
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.