Pakistan is negotiating the purchase of six to eight nuclear power reactors from China over the next decade in the most ambitious expansion yet of the country's nuclear energy capability, a leading London daily reported Tuesday.
The deal could cost $7 to $10 billion and would involve adding 3,600 MW to 4,800 MW of capacity using a series of 600 MW reactors. The plants are expected to be completed by 2025, with construction starting by 2015, the Financial Times reported, quoting a senior Pakistani official in Islamabad.
The installation of Chinese nuclear power reactors would take Pakistan a long way towards meeting government targets of raising nuclear power generation capacity to 8,800 MW by 2030, up from a current capacity of 425 MW, it said.
The disclosure of the negotiations with China follows the formal start of construction last week of a Chinese-supplied nuclear power plant at Chashma in Punjab province.
The new Chashma-2 plant is expected to be completed over the next five years and is being built beside the existing 300 MW Chashma-1, which was also supplied by China. Pakistan also operates a 125 MW Canadian-supplied reactor.
However, the spokeswoman of Pakistani foreign ministry was quoted by the British Broadcasting Corporation as saying that while Pakistan needed nuclear energy to feed its growing economy, the Financial Times report was "baseless".
"As our economy is expanding we require more energy and we remain interested in acquiring safe nuclear energy. But the report about Pakistan's talks with China regarding six to eight nuclear reactors is baseless," the spokeswoman said.
