From China To Chagai

ONE of Britain's leading nuclear experts, expressing surprise at the speed with which Pakistan carried out its nuclear tests says "Pakistan has had to depend on overseas assistance, and they would look to China in this respect." John Large, nuclear scientist and an independent advisor to the British Parliament on nuclear issues, told 바카라 that "even if Pakistan had a nuclear weapons arsenal, they were not primed up to detonate." In the first stage, he says, a test needs the digging of a hole about two metres in diameter and 400 to 600 metres deep. A chamber has to be built at the bottom connected by cable and a gamut of sophisticated instruments. That Pakistan had such a facility ready is indication that they were prepared to test. But beyond that, testing five nuclear devices needs preparation that would take more than two weeks.

Even if the US with its advanced technology were to decide to test, it would need at least two months from start to finish, according to Large. While Pakistan may have recently imported some technology for the tests, he says there is still no indication whether what was tested by Pakistan was "a static pile or a deliverable weapon." And the tests themselves are no indication whether what has been tested can be fit-ted on to the Ghauri, which he describes as an "adapted North Korean missile."

바카라 웹사이트Now, both India and Pakistan would look towards developing short-range delivery systems for compact devices, he points out. "Those are sophisticated and complex weapons that would have to be very very reliable in their design." Neither country is likely to have developed these to required sophistication. Politicians who say that both India and Pakistan will now sign the CTBT are being "very optimistic," he adds. "Over the next five years both countries are likely to do a lot more testing to develop their nuclear weapons."

Prof. Ian Bellany, an expert on nuclear issues at the University of Lancaster, says Pakistan may have slowly prepared a testing site over the years without attracting much attention. "But they could not have known that they needed to test five of them." That they had five devices ready to test at a fortnight's notice is "a puzzle". But by Saturday, the number of tests had gone up to seven. Given that India had tested first in 1974, he says, "it would be surprising if the Indian tests did not include some advance systems." On the other hand, the Pakistani tests seemed to be of "simpler and less advanced devices." There is "an extreme possibility that the devices were not Pakistani at all but Chinese devices," says Bellany.

Pakistan's first nuclear power station was supplied by Canada which withdrew support in 1976. France then agreed to sell a reprocessing plant to extract weapons-grade uranium but was persuaded in 1978 to cancel the deal. Amid reports of Pakistani nuclear weapons plans, the US imposed an embargo on military supplies to Pakistan in 1979, lifted it in 1982, reimposed it in 1990, allowed an exemption in '95 and has imposed sanctions once again.

Clandestine Pakistani efforts continued meanwhile. Its chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan was sentenced in absentia to four years imprisonment in Amsterdam in 1983 for trying to steal nuclear secrets, but the appeals court set aside that order two years later.

German media ran separate reports of attempts by Pakistani diplomats to obtain material for nuclear weapons. But as its N-programme was stepped up, the government gave up attempts to secure N-material from Canada, France, Germany or Holland. For many years now, China has assisted Pakistan's nuclear and missile programme—both openly and clandestinely. Reports that China supplied nearly 70,000 ring magnets for Pakistan's nuclear programme, only proves that Pakistan and China have a growing nuclear relationship.