By 
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif headed for Karachi on Thursday for a day-long visit to inaugurate the K-3 nuclear power project.
He will attend the inauguration of third unit of Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP), which was built with Chinese aid.
The project intends to increase the plant’s power output for Karachi by 2,200 megawatts. PM Shehbaz will unveil the K-3 Power Plant plaque and plant a seedling. He is also slated to speak at the inauguration ceremony.
PM Shehbaz and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari inaugurated a 330MW coal power station at the Thar coal location last year.
The entrance of K-3 into the national grid will increase the amount of nuclear power in Pakistan’s energy mix to more than 10%.
With the signing of the ‘Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy’ between the governments of China and Pakistan in 1986, a new era in Pakistan’s nuclear power development programme began.
The first tangible step, however, was made 30 years ago on December 31, 1991, when China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) signed a contract for the building and installation of a 325-megawatt Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) at Chashma.
The development of three more nuclear power plants at the Chashma Nuclear Power Generation Station (CNPGS) site enhanced the partnership. On February 18, 2013, a deal for the building of two additional units with a generation capacity of 1100 megawatts each was inked near Karachi.
