SMRs symposium: Small reactors need of the hour

ISLAMABAD: There is a need to have small, modular reactors which can be moved around with ease.

“The need is to have small reactors with an output of less than 300 mega watts, as compared to conventional reactors, since they can be transported easily to the required location,” said Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, the former chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) while addressing researchers and scientists at the first symposium on small modular reactors (SMRs) organised by Pakistan Nuclear Society at National Centre for Physics.

The SMRs are a type of nuclear fission reactor which are smaller than conventional reactors, are manufactured at a plant and moved to a site to be fully constructed.

Earlier, Pakistan Nuclear Society President Dr Syed Javaid Khurshid said that Pakistan is increasing its capacity of producing nuclear energy, with the share up from 3.6 per cent to 5.7 per cent in just one year.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2017.