New Laboratories Reprocessing Facility

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.