POWER December 2016 - 10

2. State of the art. China National Nuclear
Corp. (CNNC) on October 24 announced
that Unit 3 at the Fuqing nuclear power plant
(shown here) in Fujian Province met conditions
for commercial operation after a test
lasting 168 hours. CNNC plans six units for
the plant, the first four of which will be 1,087MWe
CPR-1000 pressurized-water reactors.
Unit 4 is set to begin operation sometime in
2017. Units 5 and 6, which began construction
in May and December 2015, will be China's
third-generation Hualong One designs. Courtesy:
CNNC
3. Mangrove sprawl. This NASA image created by merging Landsat 7 satellite observations
in November 1999 and November 2000 shows the Sundarbans (in deep green) surrounded
to the north by agricultural lands (in lighter green), as well as towns, (which appear tan).
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
and Unit 4 by next year.
In 2015, about 35.4% of Pakistan's
total 109.2 TWh of generation came
from oil-fired power plants, 30.2% from
hydro, and 28.6% from natural gas-fired
plants. About 5% was generated by
three nuclear reactors, two at Chashma
and one at Karachi, while the remainder
came from coal and non-hydro renewables.
Because of its small oil reserves
and
insufficient natural
gas
production,
the country's planning commission
wants to increase nuclear's share.
China also built the 300-MW Chashma
Unit 1 (completed in 2000) and the 300MW
Unit 2 (completed in 2011, and a
November 2011 POWER Top Plant). Pakistan's
planned two-unit Karachi Coastal
Power station will also likely be China's
first export of its new Hualong One unit,
a third-generation reactor design that is
being jointly developed by China General
Nuclear (CGN) and China National Nuclear
Corp. (CNNC).
Construction of the first two Hualong
One units is ongoing at CNNC's Fuqing
plant in Fujian Province (Figure 2), as
well as at CGN's Fangchenggang plant in
Guangxi Province. Argentina in February
2015 also signed an agreement to build a
Hualong One reactor as that country's fifth
nuclear unit.
UNESCO Recommends
Relocation of Coal Plant in
Bangladesh
In a rare intervention, the United Nations'
(UN's) heritage conservation arm is urging
Bangladesh to relocate a proposed 1,32010
MW
coal-fired power plant because it poses
a serious threat to one of the world's
largest mangrove forests.
Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Co.
Ltd. (BIFPCL)-a joint venture of the Bangladesh
Power Development Board (BPDB)
and India's largest power producer, NTPC
Ltd.-have proposed building the Maitree
" super thermal " coal-fired power plant at
Rampal Upazila of Bagerhat District in
Khulna, about 65 kilometers away from
the border of Bangladesh's Sundarbans
mangrove forest, which was named a
World Heritage site by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) in 1997.
All power from the two-unit supercritical
plant would be sold to the state-run
BPDB and could be essential to ensure
reliability in the power-starved country,
which has struggled to keep its existing
capacity available. The country used only
8,559 MW of its installed 12,780 MW in
October, according to BPDB statistics. The
Bangladesh Financial Express noted on October
19 that power outages across the
country have been on the rise, affecting
urban and rural areas, hampering industrial
output, and forcing residents to suffer
in the heat.
But according to a report released this
October by the UNESCO World Heritage
Centre and the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the
proposed plant could adversely affect the
nearby Sundarbans
forest. The mission
team report recommends that the Rampal
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power plant project be canceled and relocated
to a more suitable location.
The forest, which has an area of about
140,000 hectares (Figure 3), lies on the
delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and
Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal and
is the largest contiguous mangrove forest
remaining in the world. " The site is intersected
by a complex network of tidal
waterways, mudflats and small islands of
salt-tolerant mangrove forests, and presents
an excellent example of ongoing
ecological processes, " the UNESCO report
says. " The area is known for its wide range
of fauna, including 260 bird species, the
Bengal tiger and other threatened species
such as the estuarine crocodile and the
Indian python. "
UNESCO's report, based on a monitoring
mission conducted in March 2016, identifies
four key concerns related to the plant's
construction: pollution from coal ash by
air, pollution from wastewater and waste
ash, increased shipping and dredging, and
the cumulative impact of industrial and
related development infrastructure. It also
concludes that freshwater flow into the
Sundarbans has been " drastically reduced,
resulting in substantial increases in siltation
and salinity that are threatening
the overall balance of the ecosystem. " It
claims that the proposed plant site lacks
a " clear and comprehensive assessment
of the combined effects from increasing
coastal development, " and it recommends
" immediate action " to secure adequate
freshwater flow to the site.
POWER | December 2016

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POWER December 2016

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