Asia Times: Safety fears radiate from over new nuclear plant


	May 18, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Safety fears radiate from over new nuclear plant
By Nadeem Iqbal

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's new Chinese-built atomic power plant has worried environmentalists and nuclear experts, who have urged the country's military rulers to hold a safety review of the facility.

Although the atomic energy establishment has allayed such fears, some nuclear safety experts claim that the Chashma reactor has a faulty design. They have also questioned the quality of the equipment provided by the Chinese.

In an open letter to the country's Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf, a coalition of nine leading green groups has urged him not to allow the commissioning of the 300-megawatt plant until a detailed environmental safety investigation is carried out.

Chashma is the country's second nuclear power plant. Located in the central Punjab province, the reactor went critical on May 3 and will begin feeding the national grid later this year. Nuclear fuel was loaded in the reactor in November 1999.

The green groups, jointly known as the Advocacy and Development Network, have also written to Environment Minister Omer Asghar Khan who chairs the apex Pakistan Environmental Protection Council. They have expressed concern about the likely seismic hazards, the reactor design, the quality of its components, and the limited capability of its foreign supplier to provide technical support in case of an accident. The groups say their fears are based on independent investigations by concerned Pakistani scientists. They want an independent review, with public involvement, of the reactor's safety and environmental impact.

Built under a turn-key contract with China's National Nuclear Corporation that was signed in December 1991, the Chashma reactor will use about 12 tonnes of nuclear fuel annually. A similar capacity thermal power plant would use about half a million tonnes of oil every year.

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) asserts that the plant was made critical only after rigorous testing of various reactor safety systems. ''Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) have reviewed the plant design and the construction work, and endorsed these to be of international standards,'' says a PAEC statement issued when the plant went critical.

However, A H Nayyar, an assistant professor of physics in Quaid-i-Azam University, who is among those demanding a safety review, is not satisfied. ''Our main objections to the reactor relate to its site, and the design. On the site we have reasons to believe that it is earthquake prone, and we found out that some experts contracted by the PAEC to study the site advised against building a reactor there,'' he told IPS.

According to Nayyar, the Chashma plant is based on China's Qinshan reactor in which a ''serious design flaw'' has been discovered. Chashma is only the second power reactor of its type made by the Chinese, he says. While the major components for the Qinshan were supplied by Japanese, Korean and western industry, ''all such crucial components for Chashma were made for the first time by the Chinese,'' he adds. ''The Qinshan reactor had a serious problem in 1998 and the problem could not be sorted out by the Chinese themselves and they had to call in international help. Eventually the problem was removed by Westinghouse of the USA (which) discovered that the problem had arisen as a result of a faulty design.''

''That makes, in our view, complete reliance on the Chinese design and technology - as the PAEC is doing - rather worrisome,'' he adds.

Environmentalists claim that the nuclear plant will increase the risk of earthquakes in the seismic region. A quake can damage the nearby Chashma barrage on the Indus river that supports tens of thousands of farms in the mainly rural nation. A former chief of the government's Geological Survey, Muhammad Ali Mirza, has also independently advised the PAEC to carry out a fresh geological survey of the plant site as this falls in a moderate earthquake zone.

The PAEC had allowed Nayyar and two other experts to study its safety analysis report for Chashma. But the objections raised by them after going through the report have not been addressed so far by the commission, says Nayyar.

According to an environment ministry official, the ministry had carried out the mandatory environmental impact assessment for the nuclear power plant. But this has not been made public under instruction from authorities, the official, who did not want to be identified, told IPS.

The green groups say their request for a safety review is in keeping with the right given to citizens by the Environmental Protection Act. Under the law, enacted in 1997, the national Environmental Protection Council can, ''on the request of any person or organization,'' ask government authorities ''to prepare, submit, promote or implement projects for the protection, conservation, rehabilitation and improvement of the environment''.

(Inter Press Service)

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