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Pakistan Says New Reactor Won’t Cause Arms Buildup
Pakistan’s new ambassador to the United States said Thursday that a nuclear reactor under construction could have military applications but that it would not lead to a massive nuclear weapons buildup, the Washington Times reported (see GSN, Aug. 3). Mahmud Ali Durrani also called “grossly exaggerated” a report by the Institute for Science and International Security estimating that the facility would have a 1,000-megawatt capacity and be capable of producing enough plutonium for some 50 bombs per year. Pakistan is now believed to produce two weapons each year. “The plutonium may certainly be used for military purposes, but it is simply not the case that it will increase our capability X-fold,” Durrani told the Times. “I would love it to be 1,000 megawatts, because we certainly have the power needs,” he added. Durrani also expressed Islamabad’s concern about the pending U.S.-Indian nuclear technology sharing deal (see related GSN story, today). “We know your administration is very keen for this deal, but we also don’t want to see an imbalance with India that we would have to match,” he said (see GSN, July 10). He added that the black market operation run by former top Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s was “an absolute, total, unmitigated disaster for my country.” “It pulled our image down very badly and it will take us time to get out of this mess,” he said (David Sands, Washington Times, Aug. 4). The Institute for Science and International Security defended its analysis of the new Pakistani reactor in a statement, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The size of the reactor vessel under construction is substantially larger than the 50-megawatt reactor Islamabad has operated since 1998, according to the institute. The new reactor is approximately the size of vessels at the Savannah River nuclear site in the United States, each of which began operation at 500 to 1,000 megawatts and have been ramped up over several years to 2,000 megawatts. “It is true that someone can operate at less than maximum power, but the capacity is there,” said institute President David Albright. “The reactor gives Pakistan the ability to step up the power of the reactor over time, regardless of what the nameplate power of the reactor is now” (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Aug. 5).
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