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Pakistani PM Hails Chashma Nuclear Power Project

Posted on: Thursday, 29 December 2005, 09:00 CST

Pakistani PM hails Chashma nuclear power project

CHASHMA, Pakistan, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday hailed the Chashma nuclear power project as a milestone in the country's history of nuclear technology and an important step toward energy security.

Speaking at the Concrete Pouring ceremony of Chashma-2, some 280 kilometers southwest of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, he termed the project as yet another landmark in Pakistan-China relations.

"There can be no better gift for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission as it sets to celebrate its 50th anniversary and the two countries, Pakistan and China, prepare to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2006," he said.

Aziz said the Chashma project was an important step forward toward energy security, adding that Pakistan was planning to produce 8,800 MWs of nuclear power in the next 25 years.

"Our nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. We have established an effective command and control authority to ensure the safety and security of our nuclear installations," he stressed.

Chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority Sun Qin, President of the China National Nuclear Corporation Kang Rixin, Pakistan's Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Ehsan ul Haq and Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission Parvez Butt also attended the ceremony.

Before inviting Aziz to press the button to start pouring the first concrete, Butt said that the Chashma-1 was a good example of the cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy between Pakistan and China. He said that the success of the Chashma-1 proved that China had designed and built a good nuclear power plant.

In his speech, Sun said that the Chashma nuclear power plant 1 had become a successful model of "south-south cooperation.""It has brought about substantial economic and social effects and done due contribution to the sustainable development and improvement of people's living standard of Pakistan," he added.

Kang expressed the hope that the new project would be completed in schedule and with good quality to be "another symbolic project of the successful cooperation between China and Pakistan in the field of nuclear power."

The contract concerning the Chashma-1 was signed in 1991 and the nuclear power plant was connected to the grid in June 2000 and put into commercial operation in September that year.

Following the successful operation of the Chashma-1, the Chashma- 2 contract was signed in May 2004.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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