China, Pak to sign nuke energy cooperation deal

Islamabad, Aug 12: Pakistan and China are close to ink the landmark accord on nuclear energy cooperation, under which Islamabad will acquire six reactors of 300 MW each, a local newspaper reported today.

The Nation quoted an official here as saying that negotiations on nuclear energy cooperation between Pakistan and China are in final stages and the deal is most likely to be reached at during the forthcoming visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao in November this year.

He said Pakistan also wanted to acquire a nuclear power reactor of 600 megawatts from China but the Chinese have just started using their first such reactor hence its provision to Pakistan would take some time.

The nuclear energy cooperation deal with China has brought great solace to Pakistan, as the United States is not willing to extend such cooperation to Islamabad despite the months' long talks between the allied nations in war on terror.

With Chinese cooperation, Pakistan would build six new nuclear reactors in next 10 years having capacity of 2,000 megawatts, the official said.

This was part of Pakistan's plan to increase the capacity of N-power generation to over 8,000 megawatts by 2025, he added.

China has already helped Pakistan build a nuclear reactor of 350 megawatts at Chashma and it was currently building one more at the same place with the same capacity.

UNI

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