Friedrich Tinner - Nuclear Proliferation

Nuclear Proliferation

There are many controversial media and intelligence reports that Friedrich Tinner and his sons Urs and Marco Tinner, have lived in Pakistan for a long time, where they have worked for Khan Labs as research associates under the supervision of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. According to the New York Times, Tinner had a long and close relationship with Dr. A.Q. Khan. Tinner and Dr. Khan were college friends in Belgium where they studied together. Tinner, who were working at International Atomic Energy Agency as a uranium expert in 1980s, resigned from his job and moved to Pakistan, along with his family, where he joined Dr. Khan's KRL in early 1980s. The Swiss news agency also reported that Tinner had been working with Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan in mid-1970s, using his expertise in vacuum technology to develop atomic centrifuges.

However, Khan maintained that Khan first met with Tinner in 1976 when Khan and Tinner were placing sensitive projects for the Vakuum-Apparate-Technik (VTA) (English: Vacuum Apparatus Technology). A competent nuclear engineer, Tinner left VTA and traveled to Pakistan quite often as he was employed at Khan's Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL). Tinner resides with Khan and his family where, at ERL, Tinner performed experiments under Khan's supervision. However, in 1980s, Tinner left for Libya and was invited by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to join and head the Libyan nuclear program. From 1980s till 1989, Tinner tried to maintain the Libyan nuclear program and performed illicit and illegal experiments. However, Tinner again left for Pakistan and the program was dismantled. In 1995, Tinner again returned to Libya with the documentation provided by Khan. Following his return, Tinner became technical directorate officer of Libyan nuclear program, using Khan's expertise to developed the centrifuges. However, due to Libya's academic progress and lack of technicians, the program could not prevailed and suffered many setbacks. In 2000, Khan provided sensitive centrifuge designs to Tinner on gas-centrifuge method. But due to its complexity and difficulty, Tinner was unable to established the gas-cetrifuge program for Libyan nuclear program, therefore, Colonel Gaddafi dismantle and rolled back the program. In 2004, Libya dismantled its program and provided its technical and nuclear materials to IAEA and the United States. Libyan revelation also led the arrest of its former head of the program, Friederich Tinner. In Pakistan, Abdul Qadeer Khan was debriefed by the Pakistan Armed Forces which continued until next 4 years.