[🇵🇰] The Uranium Route to the Bomb:
- By ghazi
- Pakistan Nuclear Program
- 2 Replies
The Uranium Route to the Bomb: PAEC's role in Uranium Enrichment
Pakistan from the outset of the Multan conference was exploring both the Plutonium and Uranium routes to the bomb. During 1974-76, uranium enrichment was probably seen as a backup or at most a co-equal programme for fissile material production. Having two different technologies for production would make Pakistan more resistant to efforts to restrain its programme, and producing both U-235 and plutonium would give Pakistan greater flexibility in weapon design. Dr. Bashiruddin Mahmud was only one of dozens of scientists and engineers (besides) AQ Khan who were working in Europe, Canada and the US in late sixties and early seventies that later became “Consortium Companies” to supply enriched uranium to European nuclear power plants. PAEC brought back dozens of scientists from Belgium to start this programme under Dr Bashiruddin long before
AQ Khan came on board.
Moreover, the PAEC was already considering the centrifuge problem, and there was one experiment in Lahore in the early 1970s involving centrifuges. Two pilot centrifuge plants were set up in Golra and Sihala before the actual uranium enrichment facility was established at Kahuta. Munir Ahmad Khan completed the site selection for the Kahuta enrichment plant, initial procurement of vital equipment, construction of its civil works, and recruitment of staff for it by 1976. The Kahuta Enrichment Project was called Project-706 of the PAEC, and as with the plutonium programme, it was under the overall control and supervision of Chairman Munir Khan. A.Q. Khan came to Pakistan and produced gas centrifuge designs and drawings from URENCO. He initially worked under Project Director Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud. Much of the buying for Kahuta of necessary materials and equipment before and after A.Q. Khan's arrival was done by a brilliant PAEC physicist-turned diplomat, S.A. Butt, who was also looking after the plutonium programmes' requirements. The best PAEC scientists and engineers staffed Kahuta. It must be remembered that the Plutonium contract with France had not been cancelled by the French government when the Enrichment Plant was being set up at Kahuta.
When Canada in 1976 suspended the supply of heavy water fuel and spare parts for KANUPP, the PAEC under Munir Khan took up the challenge and using indigenous resources produced the feed for KANUPP. As a result the Muslim World's first nuclear reactor was not closed even for a single day for want of spare parts, fuel, and heavy water.
The technology Qadeer brought would have eventually been acquired. The work had been started by Bashir-ud-din on Nuclear Fuel cycle to make fuel for KANUPP and future nuclear plants two years prior to Qadeer's arrival in Pakistan. Dr. A.Q. Khan did not bring a magic wand from URENCO but still it was a vital link to the bomb. Under Munir Ahmed Khan, PAEC started an ambitious programme to master the technology of complete nuclear fuel cycle in which “ Heavy Water” was one of the most important components. Heavy Water which was so (prohibitively) expensive which Canada was charging Pakistan $27/lb (in early/mid-seventies), Pakistan's only nuclear power plant would die and our whole nuclear programme would come crashing in late 1970. Qadeer's contribution cannot be denied but should not be overblown. Centrifuge essentially a highly specialized mechanical component was a link in the long chain of enrichment technology. As Qadeer and his team stumbled on many occasions, he received vital technical support from PINSTECH and PAEC infrastructure and scientists. Dr N Ikram out of many (Punjab University, Institute Of Solid State Physics) was a rare specialist in this field and international authority who came to his rescue.
Qadeer's blueprints were based on first generation enrichment technology originally developed by the URENCO in late sixties and early seventies whose SWU (unit of the measurement to separate U-238 and U-235 in natural uranium in order to create final product that is richer in U-235 (atoms) was so low that thousands of centrifuge machines would have to be deployed for thousands of hours at performance levels much inferior to then installed centrifuges at URENCO. PAEC (under Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan) challenged its economic viability and presented a programme that will deploy the most efficient technology by setting up an infrastructure for advanced machine design for the next generation centrifuges and in the two decades that followed spent more than $3 billion on centrifuge technology and its support infrastructure. PAEC used “proven technology” with heavy emphasis on R&D (not copy or stealing as US and western media says) with much higher SWU while reducing costs and improving efficiency through the use of state-of-the-art materials, control systems and manufacturing processes.
By late 90s, KRL had conducted centrifuge development work costing hundreds of millions of dollars. PAEC enabled KRL to take advantage of commercial advances in construction materials (thanks to PAEC/PINSTECH's Scientists) and advanced manufacturing methods to develop a centrifuge machines that achieved several times SWU performance previously demonstrated by early KRL machines, but at substantially reduced cost. Today PAEC has a workhorse technology that capably serves Pakistan defence needs and since New Labs setup, much of the fuel needs of the future nuclear plants in Pakistan.
People might ask the significance of higher SWU? Natural uranium, in the form of uranium hexafluoride (natural UF6), is fed into an enrichment process. If (for example), you begin with 50 kilograms of natural uranium, it takes about 30 SWU to produce 5 kilograms of uranium enriched in U-235 to 4. -5%. It takes on the order of (roughly) 100,000 SWU of enriched uranium to fuel a typical 137 megawatt (MW) commercial nuclear reactor for a year. A 137 MW (KANUPP) plant can supply the electricity needs for a city of about 500,000 in a country like Pakistan.
Moreover, the technology brought by A.Q. Khan was based on the URENCO designs of gas centrifuges for enriching uranium to weapon grade, also known as Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). But again, A.Q. Khan's uranium enrichment was not independent of PAEC, even after having acquired total control and autonomy for KRL. In order to enrich uranium to weapon grade, he needed the crucial Hexafluoride gas, known as UF-6. Concurrent to the plutonium programme and the setting up of Project-706, the PAEC was also setting up a plant to produce Uranium hexafluoride, which is a crucial ingredient for enriching uranium. Here is how UF6 produced and supplied by PAEC to KRL is critical to Enriching Uranium through gas centrifuges and it underlines the importance of this very important 'step' in a series of interconnected steps that lead to a bomb. KRL depends on PAEC for Enriching Uranium as is illustrated here. KRL's role in centrifuges and vacuum technology and material is not being denied here, but PAEC's role is highlighted which is unknown and unacknowledged and unsung and all praise only goes to A.Q. Khan.
Pakistan from the outset of the Multan conference was exploring both the Plutonium and Uranium routes to the bomb. During 1974-76, uranium enrichment was probably seen as a backup or at most a co-equal programme for fissile material production. Having two different technologies for production would make Pakistan more resistant to efforts to restrain its programme, and producing both U-235 and plutonium would give Pakistan greater flexibility in weapon design. Dr. Bashiruddin Mahmud was only one of dozens of scientists and engineers (besides) AQ Khan who were working in Europe, Canada and the US in late sixties and early seventies that later became “Consortium Companies” to supply enriched uranium to European nuclear power plants. PAEC brought back dozens of scientists from Belgium to start this programme under Dr Bashiruddin long before
AQ Khan came on board.
Moreover, the PAEC was already considering the centrifuge problem, and there was one experiment in Lahore in the early 1970s involving centrifuges. Two pilot centrifuge plants were set up in Golra and Sihala before the actual uranium enrichment facility was established at Kahuta. Munir Ahmad Khan completed the site selection for the Kahuta enrichment plant, initial procurement of vital equipment, construction of its civil works, and recruitment of staff for it by 1976. The Kahuta Enrichment Project was called Project-706 of the PAEC, and as with the plutonium programme, it was under the overall control and supervision of Chairman Munir Khan. A.Q. Khan came to Pakistan and produced gas centrifuge designs and drawings from URENCO. He initially worked under Project Director Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud. Much of the buying for Kahuta of necessary materials and equipment before and after A.Q. Khan's arrival was done by a brilliant PAEC physicist-turned diplomat, S.A. Butt, who was also looking after the plutonium programmes' requirements. The best PAEC scientists and engineers staffed Kahuta. It must be remembered that the Plutonium contract with France had not been cancelled by the French government when the Enrichment Plant was being set up at Kahuta.
When Canada in 1976 suspended the supply of heavy water fuel and spare parts for KANUPP, the PAEC under Munir Khan took up the challenge and using indigenous resources produced the feed for KANUPP. As a result the Muslim World's first nuclear reactor was not closed even for a single day for want of spare parts, fuel, and heavy water.
The technology Qadeer brought would have eventually been acquired. The work had been started by Bashir-ud-din on Nuclear Fuel cycle to make fuel for KANUPP and future nuclear plants two years prior to Qadeer's arrival in Pakistan. Dr. A.Q. Khan did not bring a magic wand from URENCO but still it was a vital link to the bomb. Under Munir Ahmed Khan, PAEC started an ambitious programme to master the technology of complete nuclear fuel cycle in which “ Heavy Water” was one of the most important components. Heavy Water which was so (prohibitively) expensive which Canada was charging Pakistan $27/lb (in early/mid-seventies), Pakistan's only nuclear power plant would die and our whole nuclear programme would come crashing in late 1970. Qadeer's contribution cannot be denied but should not be overblown. Centrifuge essentially a highly specialized mechanical component was a link in the long chain of enrichment technology. As Qadeer and his team stumbled on many occasions, he received vital technical support from PINSTECH and PAEC infrastructure and scientists. Dr N Ikram out of many (Punjab University, Institute Of Solid State Physics) was a rare specialist in this field and international authority who came to his rescue.
Qadeer's blueprints were based on first generation enrichment technology originally developed by the URENCO in late sixties and early seventies whose SWU (unit of the measurement to separate U-238 and U-235 in natural uranium in order to create final product that is richer in U-235 (atoms) was so low that thousands of centrifuge machines would have to be deployed for thousands of hours at performance levels much inferior to then installed centrifuges at URENCO. PAEC (under Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan) challenged its economic viability and presented a programme that will deploy the most efficient technology by setting up an infrastructure for advanced machine design for the next generation centrifuges and in the two decades that followed spent more than $3 billion on centrifuge technology and its support infrastructure. PAEC used “proven technology” with heavy emphasis on R&D (not copy or stealing as US and western media says) with much higher SWU while reducing costs and improving efficiency through the use of state-of-the-art materials, control systems and manufacturing processes.
By late 90s, KRL had conducted centrifuge development work costing hundreds of millions of dollars. PAEC enabled KRL to take advantage of commercial advances in construction materials (thanks to PAEC/PINSTECH's Scientists) and advanced manufacturing methods to develop a centrifuge machines that achieved several times SWU performance previously demonstrated by early KRL machines, but at substantially reduced cost. Today PAEC has a workhorse technology that capably serves Pakistan defence needs and since New Labs setup, much of the fuel needs of the future nuclear plants in Pakistan.
People might ask the significance of higher SWU? Natural uranium, in the form of uranium hexafluoride (natural UF6), is fed into an enrichment process. If (for example), you begin with 50 kilograms of natural uranium, it takes about 30 SWU to produce 5 kilograms of uranium enriched in U-235 to 4. -5%. It takes on the order of (roughly) 100,000 SWU of enriched uranium to fuel a typical 137 megawatt (MW) commercial nuclear reactor for a year. A 137 MW (KANUPP) plant can supply the electricity needs for a city of about 500,000 in a country like Pakistan.
Moreover, the technology brought by A.Q. Khan was based on the URENCO designs of gas centrifuges for enriching uranium to weapon grade, also known as Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). But again, A.Q. Khan's uranium enrichment was not independent of PAEC, even after having acquired total control and autonomy for KRL. In order to enrich uranium to weapon grade, he needed the crucial Hexafluoride gas, known as UF-6. Concurrent to the plutonium programme and the setting up of Project-706, the PAEC was also setting up a plant to produce Uranium hexafluoride, which is a crucial ingredient for enriching uranium. Here is how UF6 produced and supplied by PAEC to KRL is critical to Enriching Uranium through gas centrifuges and it underlines the importance of this very important 'step' in a series of interconnected steps that lead to a bomb. KRL depends on PAEC for Enriching Uranium as is illustrated here. KRL's role in centrifuges and vacuum technology and material is not being denied here, but PAEC's role is highlighted which is unknown and unacknowledged and unsung and all praise only goes to A.Q. Khan.
