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New Laboratories Reprocessing Facility

Other Name: New Labs Reprocessing Facility
Location: Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology; Approximately 15km east of Rawalpindi
Subordinate To: Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)
Size: 100m² building
Facility Status: Operational

Located at the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), the New Labs Reprocessing Facility reprocesses spent fuel from Pakistan's Khushab reactors. [1]

Using technology and plans acquired from French and Belgian firms, Pakistan began constructing the New Labs Reprocessing Facility in 1980.[2] While construction was completed by 1982, the facility remained idle until spent fuel from the unsafeguarded Khushab-1 reactor could be utilized in 2000. [3]

In 2009, open source satellite imagery analysis indicated that construction had begun on an expansion of the New Labs facility; beginning in 2002 and apparently completed in 2006. [4] Originally, the New Labs facility could separate between eight and ten kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium per year. [5] Its capacity since the alleged expansion is unknown.

Sources:
[1] Global Fissile Material Report 2010, Chapter 10, International Panel on Fissile Materials, December 2010, www.fissilematerials.org.
[2] Nuclear Black Markets: Pakistan, A.Q. Khan and the Rise of Proliferation Networks (International Institute for Strategic Studies: London, 2007).
[3] Global Fissile Material Report 2010, Chapter 10, International Panel on Fissile Materials, December 2010, www.fissilematerials.org.
[4] David Albright and Paul Brannan, "Pakistan Expanding Plutonium Separation Facility Near Rawalpindi," Institute for Science and International Security, 19 May 2009, www.isis-online.org.
[5] Mark Hibbs, "After 30 Years, PAEC Fulfills Munir Khan's Plutonium Ambition," Nucleonics Week, 15 June 2000.

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This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, or agents. Copyright © 2011 by MIIS.

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