Khushab Nuclear Complex is a plutonium production nuclear reactor and heavy water complex situated 30 km south of the town of Jauharabad in Khushab District, Punjab, Pakistan.
The heavy water and natural uranium reactors at Khushab are a central element of Pakistan's program to produce plutonium and tritium for use in compact nuclear warheads. Khushab Nuclear Complex, like that at Kahuta, is not subject to International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.
The two currently operating reactors have capacities variously reported at between 40 MWt to 50 MWt, and as high as 70 MWt. They are conservatively estimated to be capable of producing 22 kg of weapons grade plutonium annually.
The first was commissioned in March 1996. This was Pakistan's first indigenous nuclear reactor. The Khushab Nuclear Complex was conceived and planned by the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Munir Ahmad Khan who began work on the 50 MWt Khushab-I reactor and heavy water plant in 1986. He appointed nuclear engineer Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Dr. N.A. Javed, both from the PAEC, as the Project-Directors for the reactor and the heavy water plant respectively.According to a Pakistani press report this reactor began operating in early 1998.
Based on the success of these projects and the experience and capability gained during their construction, onsite construction work on the second unit began around 2001 or 2002. In February 2010 Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and senior military officers attended a ceremony at the Khushab complex for what is believed to be the completion of the second reactor.
A third and a fourth reactor and ancillary buildings are observed to be under construction at the Khushab site, although details have not been confirmed by the Pakistani government. The third unit is nearly complete as of 2010. Judging by external appearance the two new reactors are similar or identical to the second in design. Plutonium production and nuclear reprocessing facilities are also being expanded at Khushab, New Labs and Chashma, signalling Pakistan's shift to a plutonium-based nuclear weapons program.
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