ISLAMABAD   -  Experts have unanimously recommended that the government should focus on developing nuclear power projects to meet the power demand and lower the tariff as these projects normally have seven to eight decades life cycle, producing clean, reliable and affordable energy. The recommendations were made by energy experts, academicians and international practitioners in nuclear energy in an international seminar on “Pakistan’s Energy Crisis: Role of Nuclear Power”.

The seminar hosted by Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS) brought together stakeholders from different organizations of Pakistan including experts and scholars from both national and international organizations including Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), IAEA, different think tanks, and universities.  Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, addressing on the occasion, stressed that it is important for Pakistan to shift from fossil fuel to clean options including nuclear power. He acknowledged that nuclear power is clean and green and would work as stimulus for socio-economic growth.

The seminar featured keynote addresses delivered by distinguished speakers including Dr Khaqan Hassan Najeeb, former advisor, Ministry of Finance, Tauseef H. Farooqi, former chairman, NEPRA, and Mushahid Hussain Syed, former senator and minister for information. Dr Henri Paillere, Head Planning and Economic Studies Section, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was also one of the speakers on virtual medium.

The seminar bringing together stakeholders from different organisations highlighted the achievements of Pakistan’s peaceful nuclear program and its contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and 13 (Climate Change) and emphasized the need for increasing utilization of nuclear energy in Pakistan’s power mix, to address socioeconomic challenges and mitigating climate change. Dr Khaqan Najeeb emphasized the need of reorganizing energy architecture of the country by ending the slab based tariff and instead incentivizing the use of electricity because currently Pakistan was facing the issue of reduced demand in use of electricity by the industrial and domestic sectors alike while the generation capacity stood over 45000MW. He stressed the need of dynamic modeling in energy sector and added that story of nuclear is worth telling because the plants run for a period of 60 to 80 years with additional edge of energy security as 14-18 months fuel is loaded at a time and the fuel price fluctuation issues are avoided unlike other sources.

On this occasion, Tauseef H. Farooqi, former chairman NEPRA, addressing as another key note speaker said the only criterion in selecting which electron is the most suitable should be the one which is affordable, reliable and sustainable and nuclear fulfills all these characteristics. He added that expertise gained by PAEC in operating and maintaining (O&M) nuclear power plants in Pakistan should be exploited and utilized in providing O&M services to countries which are boarding the civilian nuclear power now and in future. He stressed that after COP29, the commitment to triple the carbon free energy all over the world, importance of nuclear power has further enhanced being emission free and sustainable source.

The seminar was addressed online by Dr. Henri Paillere, Head Planning & Financing Studies at IAEA who assessed pros and cons of nuclear power and stressed that nuclear was a long-term solution which is sustainable and its advantages outweighed the disadvantage of high capital cost. Irfan Tariq, former DG Ministry of Climate Change, highlighted the climate change issues and role of nuclear power in its mitigation. Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel highlighted nuclear energy contributions towards achievement of SDGs by Pakistan. He further said that the popularity of the nuclear is due to the inability of controlling the fossil fuel use. It is the most affordable source of energy. Syed Muhammad Ali, prominent analyst, spoke about role of nuclear power in energy security. He said that current energy mix of Pakistan is politically costly, geopolitically risky, and economically not viable.

Currently, there are 440 nuclear power plants globally. Additionally 64 are being constructed with 37 by India and China. Pakistan is one of the pioneers in nuclear industry. Only France is meeting 70 percent of energy demand through nuclear sources. He said that Middle Eastern countries like UAE are building nuclear reactors. Nuclear is the future not only for Pakistan, but for those having lion share in hydrocarbon exports. He said that Pakistan is vulnerable to hydrocarbon imports, spending $13 to 15 billion a year, saying nuclear energy can reduce it. Oil market is also very sensitive to world politics. These risks directly affect our import bill, balance of payment and energy security. If the things escalate, it will significantly increase tariff. If a nuclear plant life cycle is 60 years, then the O&M and CAPEX should be spread over these 60 years. Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) official said that Pakistan has got the potential to install own power plants.