![]() The site of a uranium enrichment plant, KRL offered Pakistan a second path to the bomb via highly enriched uranium (HEU) rather than plutonium. In 1976, he was put in charge of the Engineering Research Laboratories in Kahuta, which was later named the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL). Over several decades, Khan would proliferate this technology to a whole host of would-be nuclear powers, including Iran, North Korea, and Libya.Īlthough he was never officially head of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Khan played a vital role in its success. He had spent the previous four years working for URENCO, a nuclear fuel company, on uranium enrichment plants in the Netherlands and brought his vast knowledge of gas centrifuges to Pakistan. Khan, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Waiza RafiqueIn December 1974, however, the course of the Pakistani bomb drastically changed with the return of German-trained metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan, more commonly known as A. A plutonium bomb suddenly seemed like a distant reality.Ī. Canada withdrew its support for Pakistan in 1976, while France never completed the Chashma plant. ![]() Nevertheless, the international community cracked down on the proliferation of nuclear materials after India’s first nuclear test in 1974. France likewise agreed to supply the Chashma plutonium separation plant. The reactor was installed at the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant (KANUPP) and was soon producing weapons grade plutonium. Canada, for example, provided a 137-megawatt heavy water nuclear reactor known as Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU). He was quickly named chairman of PAEC and would lead the new direction of Pakistan’s nuclear program.Īround the same time, Pakistan began receiving considerable international support for its nuclear program. Trained in the United States at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Khan had worked at Argonne National Laboratory and served as head of reactor engineering for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Physicist Munir Ahmad Khan was among the scientists invited to the meeting. In 1972, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto-soon to be elected Prime Minister-called a meeting in which he instructed top Pakistani scientists to build the bomb. The humiliation of 1971 was a turning point in Pakistan’s decision to build an atomic bomb. Pakistan sustained heavy losses, and almost 100,000 Pakistani soldiers were taken prisoner. In response, India launched a ground campaign in support of the ongoing secession movement in East Pakistan, which would soon become independent Bangladesh. The conflict began when Pakistan conducted preventative strikes against Indian airfields which nonetheless failed to seriously cripple India’s Air Force. Niazi signs the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender, December 16, 1971In 1971, war once again broke out between India and Pakistan. “If India builds the bomb, we will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own,” proclaimed then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This fact was particularly evident in wake of the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War, which ended in a nominal victory for India. Usmani founded the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Technology (PINSTECH) in 1965 and sent hundreds of young Pakistani students to be trained abroad.Īlthough Pakistan claimed that its nuclear program was only pursuing peaceful applications of atomic energy, there were signs that its leadership had other intentions. The United States gave Pakistan its first reactor-the five megawatt Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor (PARR-1)-in 1962.ĭuring this early period, PAEC chairman Ishrat Usmani devoted government resources to training the next generation of Pakistani scientists. In 1956, the Pakistani government created the Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to lead the new program. It was prompted in large part by the United States’ “Atoms for Peace” program, which sought to spread nuclear energy technology across the globe. Pakistan began its nuclear efforts during the 1950s as an energy program.
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