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Pak's 1,000 MW reactor report may be bogus
Didn't the report's author David Albright spend a lot of time running around Iraq for the IAEA, not finding WMDs? A US think tank report about Pakistan taking a giant nuclear leap with a 1000 MW reactor appears to be bogus going by opinion in the scientific and diplomatic community and Pakistan's own track record in the field. Far from having the capability to erect a 1000 MW reactor, Islamabad does not even have the ability to independently set up a 250 MW reactor, and its two operating reactors were also set up with Chinese help, according to experts. "Clearly the report was politically inspired and its timing is suspect. (The non-proliferation) lobby wants to convey a vague and exaggerated threat of nuclear dangers taking advantage of the comprehension gap on the subject," says Anupam Srivastava, a South Asia scholar at the University of Georgia who has studied nuclear programmes in the region. According to Srivastava, only three countries in the world US, France and Russia have total expertise to build such mega reactors. Even China invites bids from western firms for its large reactors. Therefore the idea that Pakistan has managed to build a 1000 MW reactor indigenously, he says, is quite ludicrous. According to the World Nuclear Association, Pakistan, as of July 2006, has two operable reactors of 425 MW and two proposed reactors of 600 MW each. Not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Pakistan cannot overtly get help from China, which in any case, is itself dependent on western firms for large reactors. Analysts say it is possible that Pakistan may have embarked on a project to build a 1000 MW reactor which has stalled due to lack of domain knowledge, technology and materials, which explains the ISIS suggestion that work at the site is at a virtual standstill. That may also explain why Pakistan's foreign minister Kasuri sought US help for the reactor during a visit to Washington as recently as July 12. "They have poured money down the drain for the Chinese, who don't have the expertise, refuse to bail them out," an Indian official said. Posted by: john 2006-07-26 |
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