Birth of Pakistan's Atomic Weapons Programme
The country's uneasy relationship with India, Afghanistan and the former Soviet Union explains its policy to become a nuclear power as part of its defence strategy. Since their independence from United Kingdom on August 1947, India and Pakistan had fought two declared wars over the disputed Kashmir territory; first war being fought in 1947-48 and second being fought in 1965.
Economic embargo placed by the United States, alliance with the West endangering the national security of the country, and the offset the country’s conventional inferiority against India and to counter the advancing Indian nuclear programme after 1965, the country put efforts to launch a classified and clandestine atomic bomb project. Shortly after the war, the country acquired its first research reactor, PARR-I, from the United States and an international research institute, Pinstech, located in Nilore city in the Islamabad Capital Venue. In 1969, after successfully negotiating with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) to supply Pakistan with a nuclear fuel reprocessing site capable of extracting 360g of weapons-grade plutonium annually. The PAEC chose five top scientists to receive training to gain expertise in nuclear fuel cycle as well as weapons-grade and reactor-grade plutonium. Agreements were made with Canada, France and the British consortium companies to expand the nuclear power infrastructure as part of the peaceful nuclear policy.
Read more about this topic: Chagai-I
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