Construction begins on new Hualong One nuclear unit in Pakistan

A ceremony was held in Pakistan to mark the start of construction of a new nuclear unit at the Chashma power plant. The plant’s fifth unit will use China’s Hualong One technology and have a capacity of 1200 MW. Pakistan currently operates six nuclear units with a total capacity of 3.5 GW at two power plants. They cover more than a quarter of the country’s electricity consumption.

At the very end of 2024, the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority granted the final permit required to begin construction of a new unit at the Chashma nuclear power plant. Construction workers therefore managed to hold the official groundbreaking ceremony, marked by the first concrete pour, on the penultimate day of last year.

"After thoroughly reviewing and assessing the submitted documents, and following the satisfactory fulfilment of all regulatory requirements in accordance with relevant national and international standards, the authority issued the permit," the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority said.

China will build the fifth Hualong One unit at the Chashma power plant under a contract signed in June 2023. The cost of the new 1200 MW (gross) unit is expected to reach $4.8 billion (around CZK 118 billion). Once it comes online, Pakistan will further increase nuclear power’s share of electricity consumption, which currently stands at around 27%. Hualong One units have an estimated operating life of 60 years, with nuclear fuel replaced every 18 months.

Sino-Pakistani nuclear cooperation

All nuclear units currently operating in Pakistan are of Chinese design. The Chashma power plant has four CNP-300 units, commissioned in 2000, 2011, 2016 and 2017, with a combined capacity of 1330 MW (net).

"The start of construction of the state-of-the-art unit at Chashma 5, the largest nuclear power plant, is another milestone in the strategic cooperation between Pakistan and China. The plant will contribute 1200 MW of capacity," Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on social media platform X.

At Pakistan’s second nuclear power plant, Karachi, a Canadian-built 100 MW CANDU unit generated electricity from 1971 to 2021. The plant also saw the construction of the first pair of Chinese Hualong One units, which were commissioned in 2021 and 2022, respectively. They were the first units of this type built by China outside its own territory.