Karachi is a city of over 20 million people and due care should be taken before a nuclear plant is built next to it
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: It may be just a minor milestone for civil society to convince the Sindh High Court to order the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to temporarily stop work on two nuclear power plants in Karachi while hearing a petition filed by four citizens, who said that the PAEC had not complied with the law in terms of environmental assessments. The petitioners, which include two renowned physicists, have raised some quite valid questions, not least among them why have these plants, known as K-2 and K-3, have been equipped with a type of reactor, which is not even a proven design?
Petitioners questioned why the Environmental Impact Assessment report was prepared without inviting public participation and opinion, and why this report was kept secret from the public. Needless to point out, Karachi is a city of over 20 million people and due care should be taken before a nuclear plant is built next to it.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2014.
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