Pakistan's Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will officially launch the country's fourth nuclear reactor, Chashma C-3, on Wednesday with an inauguration ceremony at the plant in the Punjab province. The new unit reached first criticality on 3 October and was connected to the grid on 15 October. The unit went on to pass a preliminary acceptance test in early December.
The National Assembly’s Committee on Planning, Development and Reform announced that the inaugural ceremony for Chashma C-3 would take place on 28 December. The announcement also said that reactor C-4 would be operational in July 2017.
Unit C-3 is a Chinese model, CNP-300 pressurized water reactor. Construction on the unit began in March 2011. In early December, China National Nuclear Corporation said the unit had passed a 100-hour test of its reliability, which included stable operations at 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent and 100 percent of full power.
The Chashma facility includes two 300 MWe PWRs already in operation. Unit 1 began commercial operations in 2000, while Unit 2 entered commercial status in 2011, according to the World Nuclear Association.