MIANWALI (The Thursday Times) — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir on Tuesday attended the dome placement ceremony of the Chashma-5 nuclear power plant, Pakistan’s largest nuclear reactor, which is being built with China in Mianwali.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the prime minister addressed the ceremony at the plant, known as C-5. Field Marshal Munir, the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces, joined him, along with Chinese officials and senior Pakistani officials, who together pressed the ceremonial button marking the milestone.
Placing the steel dome on the reactor building is one of the main stages in building a nuclear plant. It closes the containment structure that houses the reactor, after which work moves on to installing the main equipment inside.
Pakistan’s largest nuclear power plant
Chashma-5 is a 1,200-megawatt Hualong One reactor, a Chinese design, and will be the biggest nuclear power unit in the country when it is finished. It is being built by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission at the Chashma nuclear power complex, where four smaller reactors built with Chinese help already supply the national grid.
Shehbaz Sharif performed the groundbreaking of the project on July 14, 2023. Concrete was first poured on December 30, 2024, days after the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority issued its construction licence, formally starting the build.
In September, Pakistan and the International Atomic Energy Agency signed a safeguards agreement covering the plant.
The government sees nuclear power as a steady, low-cost source of electricity at a time when the country is trying to cut its reliance on imported fuel for power generation.
