Prospects of nuclear power in Pakistan. Report of a mission sent to Pakistan

Pursuant to the desire expressed by the Government of Pakistan, the International Atomic Energy Agency has undertaken a preliminary study of the prospects of nuclear power in this country. The variety of situations encountered in the various power areas of Pakistan have made this study particularly challenging. It is hoped that its results will prove of interest to many developing countries. The long-term requirements of economic development in Pakistan, viewed against its indigenous energy resources, make nuclear power a leading contender for the supply of future energy needs. Considering that economically exploitable hydro resources are confined to the north-western area of the country, that only small reserves of poor quality coal are found in areas remote from consumption centres, that domestic oil can only meet 15% of present power consumption and that natural gas reserves, although large by present consumption standards, are equivalent to less than one year of United States coal production, there are good grounds for investigating the potential of nuclear power reactors. It is therefore not surprising that attention has been directed to this source of energy and that the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission has realized that the complexity of an extensive nuclear power programme in the future is such that the problem would be better faced at the time when the pressure on existing domestic energy resources has not as yet become critical. In a country undergoing a process of rapid industrialization, both future demand and supply of power are however subject to wide uncertainties. On the demand side, industrial development planning leads to the preparation of a great variety of projects whose implementation and timing are understandably subject to revisions and changes, so that forecasts of power consumption vary within much wider limits than in the case of highly industrialized countries. On the supply side, the intense efforts at surveying and exploring the natural resources of the country may lead to discoveries of new sources of fuel which would greatly affect the short term energy picture. A number of studies have already been made of the power problems in Pakistan and a number of comprehensive reports are available