China's main nuclear power company said it is in talks to build a one-gigawatt nuclear power plant in Pakistan, even as the two countries face U.S. and Indian concerns over their cooperation to build other plants in Pakistan.
China
's
main nuclear power company said it is in talks to build a one-gigawatt nuclear
power plant in
Pakistan
, even
as the two countries face
U.S.
and
Indian concerns over their cooperation to build other plants in
Pakistan
.
Pakistan
hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and
U.S.
and
Indian officials worry that nuclear material might fall into the hands of al
Qaeda and Taliban militants based near the Afghan border in northwestern
Pakistan
.
The state-run China National Nuclear Corp. has already helped
Pakistan
build
its main nuclear power facility at Chashma in
Punjab
province, is completing a second reactor there and has contracts to build two
more 300-megawatt reactors.
Qiu Jiangang, vice president of CNNC, told a meeting in
Beijing
on
Monday that the first reactor is operating safely, and the second one is being
tested and is expected to start formal operations by the end of the year. "Both
sides are in discussions over the CNNC exporting a one-gigawatt nuclear plant
to
Pakistan
,"
he added, without giving details.
(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall
Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)
There was no immediate reaction from the
U.S.
or
India
. Officials
from both countries expressed concern after
China
signed a deal in February to build the additional two 300-MW reactors.
U.S.
officials said such plans required special exemption from the 46-nation Nuclear
Suppliers Group, which
China
joined in 2004 and is supposed to regulate global nuclear trade.
Vann H. Van Diepen, the
U.S.
acting assistant secretary of state for international security and
nonproliferation, suggested before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in July
that the
U.S.
would
vote against such an exemption.
The
U.S.
and
many other NSG members have long had concerns about nuclear proliferation from
Pakistan
,
especially since A.Q. Khan, its top nuclear scientist, confessed in 2004 to
selling nuclear secrets to
North
Korea
,
Iran
and
Libya
.
Abdul Basit, a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman, declined to comment on the
one-gigawatt plant, but said
Pakistan
's
nuclear cooperation with
China
was
for civilian purposes. "The nuclear cooperation between the two countries
are in accordance with international obligations and comes under IAEA
safeguards," he said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
China
and
Pakistan
argue
that the
U.S.
set a
precedent by sealing a landmark deal to sell civilian nuclear fuel and
technology to
India
in
2006 even though
New Delhi
had
yet to sign the NPT.
That agreement, which lifted a U.S. ban imposed after
India
tested its first nuclear device in 1974, is seen as the cornerstone of a new
partnership with
New Delhi
designed to counterbalance
China
's
influence in
Asia
.
Critics, however, say it undermined the global non-proliferation regime by
recognizing
India
as a
global nuclear power, but not
Pakistan
, even
though the South Asian rivals developed nuclear bombs simultaneously.
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