Pakistan Atomic Power History Essay

Professor Abdus Salam played an important and significant role in Pakistan's development of nuclear technology. As Science Advisor to the President, Abdus Salam persuaded President Ayub Khan, against the wishes of his own government, to establish Pakistan's first commercial nuclear power reactor, near Karachi.[3][4] Known as Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP), the commercial power plant is a small 137 MWe CANDU reactor, a Canadian pressurized heavy water reactor.


The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) administrative Authority that is mandate to operate commercial nuclear power plants in Pakistan.PAEC's Parvez Butt, a nuclear engineer, was its project-director. The KANUPP began its operations in 1972, and it was inaugurated by then-President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Munir Ahmad Khan as PAEC chairman.[5] The KANUPP which is under International safeguards and is operated at reduced power. In 1969, France's Commissariat à l'énergie atomique and United Kingdom's British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) contracted with PAEC to provide plutonium and nuclear reprocessing plants in Pakistan. Per agreement, the PAEC engineers were the lead designers of the power plants and nuclear reprocessing facilities. While the BNFL and CEA provided the economical funds, technical assistance and nuclear materials. The work on projects did not start until 1972, and as a result of India's Operation Smiling Buddha — a surprise nuclear test in 1974 — the BNFL cancelled the projects with PAEC.[6] In 1974, PARR-II Reactor were commissioned, and its project directors were Munir Ahmad Khan and Hafeez Qureshi. The PARR-II is an indigenous reactor that was built under the auspicious of PAEC's engineers and scientists.


The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA)'s logo.In 1977, due to a mounted pressure exerted by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the CEA cancelled the projects with PAEC immediately. Without the assistance of United Kingdom and France, the PAEC engineers...