ISLAMABAD, June 19: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has decided to establish an Engineering Design Organisation (EDO) for the indigenous development of nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the country.

Informed sources told Dawn that China had offered Pakistan four to six NPPs, which would not fulfil its energy requirements. Therefore, it was decided that self-reliance in nuclear technology was the only way out of the energy crisis.

The EDO would have presence in Islamabad, Karachi and Chashma. The PAEC has formulated a comprehensive plan to make the EDO a commercial entity, in line with similar Chinese, South Korean and Indian organisations. A five-year-plan (2008-12) is estimated to cost Rs2.2 billion.

This would be the first step towards indigenising nuclear power technology in Pakistan, sources said. The EDO would be responsible for indigenisation in design, engineering and construction of NPPs, development of standardised NPPs, lifetime support to NPP operations and other facilities.

The new organisation would consist of three directorates headed by the director-general Directorate of Nuclear Power Engineering Plant (DNPEP). The directorate would undertake designs and analyses of nuclear reactor cores and fuels, management of special system development, vibration analysis and software development.

The DNPEP would also be responsible to develop structures for site selection and evaluation, design and analysis of NPP buildings and development of local construction industry.

At present, the fuel mix in power generation is dominated by fossil fuel (50 per cent gas and 20 per cent oil). But since fossil fuels depleted quickly and its price in international markets was vulnerable to fluctuations, the PAEC wrote to higher authorities saying: “In order to secure energy it is imperative to diversify the fuel mix in power generation.”

The Energy Security Action Plan (ESAP) has envisaged increasing the share of nuclear power from 0.8 per cent to 4.2 per cent and generating 88,000MW of electricity by 2030.

For additional power generation requirements, emphasis would be on developing indigenous resources, including hydro, coal, natural gas and nuclear sources.

The PAEC informed authorities that it was planning to add about 1,260MW through hydel power, 880MW from alternate energy, 4,860MW from gas, 900MW from coal and 160MW from oil by 2010.

Eight small and medium hydro projects were under different stages of implementation with 755MW of electricity expected to be generated by 2010, it added. The feasibility studies of Diamer/Basha, Dadu, Bunji and Kohala hydro power projects were also in hand.