Pakistan’s first but ageing nuclear power plant – the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp) – has restored its supply of 85 mega watts of electricity to the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) through the joint Baldia-Kanupp link, where the power supply from Kanupp was tripping intermittently for the last few months.
Whether or not the months-long disruption was actually the cause of prolonged power outages and even load-shedding, this latest restoration of power supply to the KESC grids will certainly enhance the performance of the privatised utility, which has been castigated for the infamous power shutdown notices last summer.
“We have been forced to go for an unplanned shutdown of the plant for maintenance on September 27,” explained a Kanupp official, who did not want to be named. “Two days later, our experts inspected the leaking pressure valves and other crucial plant systems. It was concluded that the maintenance would take two weeks. Now the plant is back on track.”
For last several months, the power generated by Kanupp could not be supplied forward, as the power supply from Kanupp to KESC tripped around 20 times during the past four months, which automatically switched off the nuclear power plant every time the tripping occurred.
The Kanupp officials believe that the power generation on their part has been satisfactory and it is the KESC’s link that’s been failing to take on the upload. The KESC engineers, however, are of the opinion that it is Kanupp’s fault as the power plant is outliving its prescribed 30 years of nominal design life.
Owned and operated by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Kanupp is located at Paradise Point on the arid Arabian Sea Coast. It is a pressurised heavy water reactor, made commercially viable in 1972. Kanupp completed its nominal design life of 30 years in 2002, with a total generation of 10,700 gigawatt hour (GWH) and a cumulative availability of 54 per cent.
So what’s really missing in the power generation and supply chain? The Kanupp officials blame that the KESC network is not stable. And that very incapacity is undermining the margin of using the optimum level of electricity from the Kanupp plant. But the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) record suggests that Kanupp, despite all its safety record, has been the worst performer of all.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Kanupp lifetime energy availability factor, as of the end of 1997, was 28.6 per cent – this made it one of the worst performing nuclear power plants in the world. “Between 1989-1996, Kanupp’s capacity factor or the ratio of actual electrical production versus designed power was only 34 percent,” said the official.
In fiscal year 1993-94, Kanupp generated 497GWH of power, peaking at 511GWH in 1994-95, and dwindling to 223GWH in 1996-97. It remained shut down from December 2002 to January 2004 for completing safety upgrades recommended by the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority and to acquire a new lease on life at the end of the plant’s 30-years of design life.
“Performing at a low yield, Kanupp was again shut down in 2005 for the required safety upgrades. It was restarted and connected to a grid of KESC in December 2006 while generating 50 megawatts(MWs),” said the same Kanupp official. “Lately we encountered problems related to safety protocols and in strict adherence to IAEA guidelines we were forced to shutdown.”
At the relicensing of Kanupp, the PAEC officials believed that the power generation would be raised gradually up to 105MWs. Since various safety systems were upgraded and replaced during those relicensing outages, a few other tests were supposed to be carried out at the 50MWs power generation level. It did not happen the way it was projected.
Though the same Kanupp official would acknowledge the fault, he did admit to the fact that the KESC received only 10MWs from the plant in June-July this year. Similarly, he did appear comfortable answering questions pertaining to the safety records of the relicensed power plant, off the record.
When Tariq Rashid, the PAEC spokesman, was asked the same thing, he said that the safety record of Kanupp during its 30-plus years of operation has been excellent, and it was endorsed by several international agencies’ review missions. “The Average personal radiation exposure has been well within the prescribed limits of International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP),” he added.
“The release of radioactive material through gaseous and liquid effluents remained within four per cent of the maximum permissible limit,” the PAEC spokesman maintained. “Throughout the plant life, Kanupp has never experienced any event, which could be considered as a potential threat to plant workers or the public.”
The PAEC has plans to establish two more nuclear plants, each with a capacity of generating 300 megawatts, in close proximity of Kanupp. “A site survey has been completed for the construction of a 300-megawatt Kanupp-II,” said a source in the PAEC. “We have carried out seismic studies of the site as per the IAEA guidelines. We are hopeful of starting it with Chinese help.”
