A Statement from Pakistan Peace Coalition forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission
On 20th August, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the next phase in the construction of two large Chinese supplied nuclear power plants next to Karachi.
This project is moving forward with reckless disregard for the safety and well-being of the 20 million people who live in Karachi. The Federal and Sindh governments have failed to take seriously the risks from these nuclear power plants and the potentially devastating consequences of a nuclear accident to the city of Karachi. The approval of this project has come without proper public consultation and has involved repeated failures to uphold environmental laws which are supposed to protect the public.
The disregard for public consultations and legal obligations was evident when initially the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report was submitted in utmost secrecy not made public and there was no public consultation process. SEPA became a part of this recklessness when it first approved the initial EIA report in haste without public consultation, even though such consultation is required by law.
Following the orders of the Sindh High Court, in response to a public interest litigation, it held a public hearing of a freshly submitted EIA in a most objectionable and irresponsible manner. By hastily awarding its approval, SEPA chose to overlook a number of objections raised by the public. It violated its own laws by failing to inform concerned citizens why their critical comments were rejected or ignored. SEPA’s approval glossed over serious threats to public interests and the environment.
SEPA and PNRA have also callously overlooked the fact that the reactor spent fuel storage pool could also face an accident, and that in such an event there is nothing to prevent a very high level of most lethal radioactivity from being dispersed in the direction of some of the densest population centres of Karachi.
SEPA in giving a blanket approval has failed to challenge the PAEC into including, as required by its own laws, alternative sources of electricity like wind and solar power which are the most rapidly growing sources of electric power all over the world. Even in China, annual growth in nuclear power plants is only 5-10% of that in wind energy power plants.
Besides risks to life, the project completely ignores the social and economic consequences of a major nuclear accident on Karachi, or how its population will be evacuated. The project proponents have not considered the effect of a serious reactor accident on the industries and businesses in Karachi and the consequent impact on the national economy.
What is most alarming is the unreasonable refusal on the part of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to accept the possibility that lethal radioactivity could breach the reactor area into the environment, putting in grave danger lives and the well-being of the more than 20 million inhabitants of Karachi. Most of the time of the year wind blows from the reactor site towards the city. Yet PAEC, SEPA and PNRA refuse to accept the international recommendation of siting nuclear power reactors at least 30 km away from population centres, and instead it deem it sufficient to protect only a sparsely populated area of up to 5 km around the reactor site. PAEC has no plans to protect Karachi’s population, nor any provisions for evacuating it, in the event of a severe accident happensat the reactor.
Neither PAEC nor SEPA, the environment protector, were evenconcerned about the environmental impact of the large amount of heatdischarged into the sea by the proposed reactors over the next 60 years, especially its effect on the marine life near the coast, and its impact on thelivelihood of nearby fishing communities.
In its haste to put up the nuclear power plants, the PAEC is ignoring the fact that the reactor being imported is a new design that has not been installed anywhere and never been tested. The Hualong-1 design is a hybrid French technology, and the first reactor of this kind being constructed in China has at least 15% of its components imported from France. Due to nuclear sanctions against Pakistan, China will not be allowed to use these components in the Karachi reactors. Instead, the Karachi reactors will have Chinese versions of these components, and hence the Karachi reactors would become the first and only testing ground for at least 15% of the supplied components. This increases the level of risk, which PAEC and PNRA have refused to accept.
Further construction of the Karachi reactors should be halted. The Environmental Impact Assessment process has been deeply flawed. Priority must be given to safeguarding the people of Karachi and the environment from a nuclear accident, however, improbable.
The above statement is issued by: Executive Director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Karamat Ali, Chairperson of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) Mohammad Ali Shah, Roland deSouza of Shehri-Citizens for Better Environment, senior scientist and President of Pakistan Peace Coalition Dr. A. H. Nayyar, senior architect and town planner Arif Belgaumi, Asad Iqbal Butt of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Karachi.
