Daily Times

Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Thursday met Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, at the sidelines of the Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels.

The Foreign Minister appreciated IAEA’s role in enhancing peaceful uses of nuclear technology and for organizing the First ever Nuclear Energy Summit. He highlighted that as a founder member, Pakistan attached great importance to the Agency’s work. The Foreign Minister also highlighted the importance of nuclear energy in combating climate change and Pakistan’s desire to enhance the share of nuclear energy in the energy mix. He also underscored the importance of technical cooperation work of the Agency to which Pakistan is also making significant contributions.

Foreign Minister Dar stressed that the international financial institutions and banks should support nuclear energy projects in developing countries to enable them to meet their energy needs and achieve zero emissions goals. He urged IAEA to continue its role in sensitizing the world about the importance of nuclear energy as a clean source.

The Director General IAEA appreciated Pakistan’s collaboration with the agency. He added that in Asia, Pakistan is playing a key role in sharing experience and expertise with developing countries. He agreed that financing of nuclear projects was an issue and that he would soon engage with International Financial Institutions to resolve the issue.

The Director General IAEA fondly recalled his visit to Pakistan last year, when he had the first hand experience of visiting Pakistan’s facilities and witnessing Pakistan’s progress in the field of peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

Meanwhile addressing the Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels on Thursday Ishaq Dar thanked the Government of Belgium and International Atomic Energy Agency for organizing the first ever Nuclear Energy Summit.

He said that the Summit is taking place in times of rising energy demands and associated supply-side challenges triggered by wars, contestations and climate change concerns. Energy security stands high on global priorities — for both developing and developed world. We need clean and cost effective energy. With immense power density, negligible carbon footprints and no Greenhouse emissions, nuclear energy offers a viable solution for the future. We endorsed nuclear energy as one of the low-emission technologies in the recent COP-28, he said.

Ishaq Dar said that it is gratifying that technology innovations continue to make nuclear energy safer and more cost-effective. We must continue our focus on safety, waste management, and proliferation. He said that states must also continue to ensure focus on nuclear safety and security, waste management and compliance with non-proliferation obligations. Small modular reactors hold the promise of bringing nuclear power to remote or underserved communities, providing access to clean and affordable energy where it is needed most. He said that Pakistan has 100 reactor-years experience of safely operating nuclear power plants. We started construction of the first nuclear power plant in Karachi in the early sixties (1960s).

He said that Presently, Pakistan has six operating nuclear power plants generating 3,530 MW of electricity. Nuclear energy constitutes around 8% of our installed electric generation capacity. Given rising domestic energy demands and climate vulnerabilities, nuclear energy is being prioritized in both our National Electricity Policy and National Climate Change Policy, he said.

Ishaq Dar said that the installed nuclear energy capacity in the country has avoided more than 100 Million tons of CO2 emissions so far. He said that Pakistan has fully trained human resources capable of supporting nuclear power infrastructure. Our robust regulatory infrastructure ensures comprehensive safety and security of national nuclear installations and materials across all domains, he said.

He said that Pakistan also stands ready to share its experience and expertise in peaceful uses of nuclear technology with the world. We value our partnership with IAEA, which is not limited to energy only, he said. We have 3 IAEA collaborating centers for nuclear safety and security, food and agriculture and Applications of Innovative Nuclear Technologies. We wish to further enhance our cooperation on initiatives of DG IAEA including‘Atoms4NetZero’, ‘Atoms4Food’, ‘Rays of Hope’, ‘Zodiac’, ‘NUTEC Plastics’ and ‘Marie Curie fellowships’. IAEA’s capacity for technical assistance in peaceful uses of nuclear energy may be facilitated through either a dedicated funding stream or through enhanced allocations to existing technical cooperation funds.

He said that Pakistan will remain a steadfast partner of the international community and the IAEA in further enhancing the role of nuclear technology for energy and other peaceful purposes. Meanwhile Ishaq Dar met Azerbaijan’s FM Bayramov Jeyhun on the sidelines of NES2024 in Brussels. The two Ministers committed to further deepen Pakistan-Azerbaijan cooperation in all fields including in the area of peaceful uses of nuclear technology especially in agriculture and human health. They reaffirmed commitment to combat climate change through use of nuclear energy. Pakistan & Azerbaijan have been successfully collaborating in nuclear applications including in Agriculture. FM Dar conveyed Pakistan’s readiness to share experience and expertise in peaceful uses of Nuclear Technology with Azerbaijan.