Zubair Qureshi
Shanghai
Belt & Road mainstream media persons on Wednesday visited China’s first and premiere nuclear power plant Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant to learn not only about the country’s landmark achievements in nuclear energy but also about the journey that began from Qinshan in 1991 initially with a production of 300MW.
Now it is generating around 728MW of electricity and transmitting it to the eastern grid of the province.
China with around 45 NPPs that are producing over 6,500 MW (294.4 billion kilowatts annually) is not only setting up new, expanding and upgrading the existing nuclear power plants its companies are also providing great support to Pakistan in resolving its energy woes.
while visiting various sections of Nuclear Power Science & Technology Museum, the BRI media persons learnt how China gradually developed its capacity from a small unit producing meager 300MW to a second one with 650MW and then a third one (700MW).
It was the fourth NPP that enabled the country to produce its first 1,000 MW. While briefing the media persons the section chief Bi Wenya said the third NPP was developed on a different technology with the support of Canada. Earlier, China was developing its NPP according to the US and the French technologies, she said.
On the external wall of the Nuclear Science & Technology Museum in Qinshan it was inscribed: It is the strategic decision in China’s energy development to develop nuclear power. Through more than 30 years of efforts, China’s nuclear power has developed from the breakthrough of zero to the independent design, manufacture and construction of nuclear power unit of 1,000 MW and the third generation of nuclear power technology with IPRS which is a significant contribution to China’s optimization of energy structure, development of clean energy and construction of beautiful country.
It may be learnt that Pakistan’s five nuclear power plants are also developed, expanded and upgraded by Chinese engineers and scientists. These include C1, C2, C3 and C4 while work on K3 and K4 is in progress, according to an official of the plant.
About Pakistan China cooperation, the official said it was an ongoing process and only last month in April some 55 Pakistani engineers received their training at the Qinshan NPP and some 25 are arriving next month for the same purpose.
Earlier, the BR media persons took a round of a model village Wen Xi Wu an ancient village with some 1000-year old history tracing back to Thang Dynasty. Currently 160 families are living in the newly constructed houses designed according to the modern needs. The chief of the village an elderly man Mr Zhou Yi Kai took the media persons to various parts of the small village that had its own solar power water recycling plant and solar street light system. Mr Zhou Yi Kai said he had preserved the old heritage of the village in an ‘agriculture museum’ that showcased the village’s rich history.
