Pakistan launches huge nuclear arms drive

Posted by Robert on July 25, 2006 6:15 AM

Friend and Ally Alert from [1] The Guardian, with thanks to JE:

Pakistan appears to have embarked on a dramatic expansion of its nuclear arsenal with the construction of a new heavy water reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for up to 50 warheads a year, according to a report released yesterday by a US thinktank.

The report by the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis), is largely based on commercially available satellite images showing a large building site at a nuclear production complex at Khushab, in Pakistani Punjab. Isis, a non-governmental nuclear watchdog, estimates that the huge rectangular building under construction and the circular structure inside it almost certainly represent the early stages of a 1,000MW reactor capable of generating more than 200kg (440lbs) of weapons-grade plutonium per year. When completed it would be 20 times the size of the existing reactor at Khushab.


Article printed from Jihad Watch: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2006/07/pakistan-launches-huge-nuclear-arms-drive.html

URLs in this post:
[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,1828058,00.html