the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority  has issued a licence to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to build unit 5 at the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant (C-5).  the new project  will be Pakistan’s largest nuclear plant with a capacity of 1,200 MWe.      The cooperation agreement for C-5, a Hualong One reactor, was signed with China in 2017. The groundbreaking ceremony for C-5 took place in July 2023.    C-5 is expected to be completed in 7-8 years. The Chashma site at Mianwali in Punjab already hosts four operating Chinese-supplied CNP-300 pressurised water reactors.   This is the third and largest Chinese designed Hualong One plant to be exported to Pakistan. China also constructed two 1,161 MWe Hualong One reactors as units 2 and 3 of the Karachi NPP. Construction of unit 2 began in 2015 and unit 3 in 2016. Both units were supplied and constructed by CNNC under a $9bn contract signed with PAEC in 2013. Karachi 2 was connected to the grid in 2021 and unit 3 began commercial operation in April 2022. Unit 2 was formally handed over to Pakistan in May – some three years after it began operation.       C-5 is an advanced third-generation PWR with active and passive safety features, including a double-shell containment and reactor-filtered venting system. It has a lifespan of 60 years. C-5 has already been approved by the executive committee of the National Economic Council and it will be built at a cost of $3.7bn.      Pakistan’s installed nuclear energy capacity is about 3,530 MWe, contributing about 27% of the total electricity generation in the national grid (ICE ISLAMABAD)

Fonte notizia: power engineering