The plant owes its existence largely to Abdus Salam, the theoretical physicist who would later win Pakistan's first Nobel Prize. In 1960, serving as science adviser to President Ayub Khan, Salam lobbied the United Nations General Assembly for civilian nuclear power in developing nations. Back home, he faced fierce opposition from officials in the Ayub administration who saw the project as extravagant. Through personal advocacy, Salam secured both funding approval from the president and a deal with Canada. In 1965, General Electric Canada signed on as designer, with the Montreal Engineering Company handling construction. Canada's calculation was geopolitical: selling CANDU reactor technology to Pakistan would maintain a balance of power with India, which had its own Canadian-supplied reactor. Construction began in 1966, and the plant achieved criticality in August 1971.

For three years, the arrangement worked. Canada supplied the deuterium oxide moderator and natural uranium fuel that the CANDU pressurized heavy-water reactor required. Then, in 1974, India detonated a nuclear device using fissile material produced in a Canadian-supplied reactor. Canada recoiled. By 1975, GE Canada was charging Pakistan $27 per pound for deuterium oxide -- a price the country's taxpayers could scarcely afford. Support dried up. Pakistan was left to operate and maintain the 137-megawatt reactor largely on its own, developing indigenous capabilities out of isolation rather than choice. The K-1 unit ran for fifty years with a capacity factor of 55.7%, finally ceasing operations on August 1, 2021.

With Canada gone, Pakistan turned east. China agreed to supply two Hualong One reactors -- designated K-2 and K-3 -- each with a gross capacity of 1,100 megawatts, dwarfing the original Canadian unit. K-2 achieved criticality in February 2021 and was connected to the national grid in March. K-3 followed in February 2022. The deal drew international scrutiny, as critics argued it fell outside Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines. Supporters countered that Pakistan needed the generating capacity. Today, the three-unit complex at Paradise Point represents Pakistan's evolution from nuclear dependence to a partnership with the world's rising power -- a shift visible in the reactor buildings themselves, where a small Canadian-era structure stands beside its Chinese-designed successors.

KANUPP sits on the coast of a city of over 16 million people. Fishermen cast nets within sight of the cooling water outlets. Concerns about safety have shadowed the facility throughout its life -- a tritium leak in 2011 drew attention, though officials said no damage resulted. Environmental groups have questioned the siting of nuclear reactors in a seismically active region near one of the world's most densely populated urban areas. The nearby Hawkes Bay beach draws weekend visitors. A reverse osmosis plant coupled to the reactor complex produces desalinated water. For Karachi, KANUPP is simultaneously a source of electricity, a point of pride in national technical achievement, and a reminder that the boundary between civilian and military nuclear technology remains, as it always has been, paper-thin.