[Peace-discuss] Why we're killing Afghans

[E.Wayne Johnson]

I am surprised to see the Wikipaedia figures on nuclear power in China which 
state that about 3% of the electricity
comes from nuclear power.   I would have placed the number much higher based 
on the number of nuclear reactors I see around the countryside.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: "peace discuss" <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 9:32 AM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Why we're killing Afghans


China to build reactors in Pakistan
By Geoff Dyer in Beijing, Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
and James Lamont in New Delhi
Published: April 28 2010 15:48 | Last updated: April 28 2010 15:48

China has agreed to build two new civilian nuclear reactors in Pakistan,
according to Chinese companies and officials in Islamabad and Beijing, in a 
deal
that could re-ignite the global debate about nuclear commerce and 
proliferation.

The decision to supply reactors to Pakistan , which has a nuclear arsenal 
and a
record of dealing with North Korea, Iran and Libya, reflects China’s growing
diplomatic confidence. It also reflects Beijing’s ambition to become a 
global
supplier of nuclear energy and underscores its view of Pakistan as a prized
south Asian strategic partner .

The new deal with Pakistan, which has yet to be publicly announced, poses a
dilemma for the US administration of President Barack Obama, which wants 
Chinese
support for new sanctions on Iran but which does want to weaken the Nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty. Non-proliferation is one of Washington’s main 
foreign
policy goals .

China began building a nuclear reactor in Chashma in Pakistan's Punjab 
province
in 1991 and work on a second rector began in 2005 and is expected to be
completed next year. Under the new agreement, Chinese companies will build 
at
least two new 650-MW reactors at Chashma.

A Pakistani government official familiar with the discussions with China 
said on
Wednesday: “Our Chinese brothers have once again lived up to our 
expectations.
They have agreed to continue cooperating with us in the nuclear energy 
field.”

In a statement on its website, China National Nuclear Corporation said that 
the
Chinese and Pakistan governments had signed an agreement to finance the
construction of the two new reactors in February. Last year, Shanghai 
Nuclear
Engineering Research and Design Institute said it had been hired to design 
the
two new reactors.

Diplomats in China said they had been told that Beijing has given its formal
approval to the deal, although they cautioned that there could still be
last-minute hitches in the talks between the two governments.

Officials of two nations that are members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group 
said
they had yet to be formally informed by the Chinese that the supply of new
reactors was going ahead.

Mark Hibbs,senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International 
Peace's
nuclear policy programme, said that China had decided to go ahead with the 
deal
because “for political reasons it felt Pakistan should be compensated in 
some
way for the US-India nuclear deal ”. The deal between Washington and New 
Delhi
facilitated nuclear co-operation even though India has not signed the NPT.

“After the dust settled on the US-India nuclear deal, China gravitated 
towards a
position that it will support nuclear commerce if it benefits Chinese 
industry,”
he added.

The Obama administration could well not oppose China’s new nuclear deal with
Pakistan, Mr Hibbs said, because it wanted to keep Pakistan engaged in
Afghanistan and gain Chinese support over Iran’s nuclear programme. He also 
said
the US would find it difficult to oppose China’s support for Pakistan after
signing the US-India civil nuclear agreement.

Western diplomats in Islamabad said the US was likely to accept China's 
growing
role as a supplier of nuclear power to Pakistan.

“As long as China is not arming Pakistan with nuclear bombs, this kind of
co-operation helps to deal with Pakistan's frustration over not securing a 
civil
nuclear agreement with the US,” said one western official. "It's not a 
perfect
outcome.”

The agreement comes as Pakistan faces long electricity cuts as a result of
under-investment in the energy sector. Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime
minister, last week publicly urged Pakistanis not to damage public property 
in
protests against the power shortage.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf731b28-52d2-11df-a192-00144feab49a.html

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