Pakistan to produce nuclear safety equipment locally

Specialised workshop to produce spare parts for nuclear plants, other related equipment.

TAXILLA:

Having formally received a go-ahead from the country’s nuclear regulatory body to manufacture class I nuclear safety equipment, Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) III Taxilla will take Pakistan into the list of countries certified to produce such equipment indigenously.

HMC III – the specialised workshop operating under the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to produce spare parts for nuclear plants and other related equipment – was issued the licence by the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) on Tuesday.

“Pakistan has constantly been under international embargoes. Local production of parts would not only help them keep up the required maintenance of nuclear plants but it would also improve the existing plants,” said PNRA Chairman Engineer Anwar Habib.

The HMC III will produce equipment related to core nuclear islands that are directly linked to controlling and maintaining multiple activities in a nuclear reactor.

“It is indeed a happy moment for Pakistan. We will ensure that quality is not compromised in haste or achieving any production target,” said Habib.

He revealed that HMC-III already possessed the certification to manufacture class II and III nuclear safety equipment which was obtained some six years ago.

However, class I equipment deals with parts like tanks, vessels, cooling systems, steam generators, etc and any compromise over quality at this stage cannot be tolerated, warned the PNRA chairman.

PAEC Chairman Ansar Pervaiz said that Pakistan has not only silenced its critics who raised concerns over the country’s nuclear plant safety, the local development of parts and equipment has also made the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (Kanupp) surpass its designed life by 10 years.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2012.