May 19, 2009
Expansion at Pakistan's Nuclear Sites
David Albright, Paul Brannan and Robert Kelley
ISIS released two reports today with satellite imagery revealing the expansion of two nuclear sites key to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. One of the sites undergoing expansion-the Chemical Plants Complex (CPC) near Dera Ghazi Khan-is an important military and civil fuel cycle site. It produces natural uranium hexafluoride and uranium metal, two key materials used in producing Pakistan's nuclear weapons. The other site, the New Labs facility near Rawalpindi, appears to have added a second plutonium separation plant adjacent to the old one. Over the last few years, ISIS has also tracked the construction of two new plutonium production reactors at the Khushab site (see April 23, 2009 report). All together, these recent expansion activities indicate that Pakistan is indeed progressing in a strategic plan to improve the destructiveness and deliverability of its nuclear arsenal. The United States should work with Pakistan and other nuclear powers to end the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons-ending the need for Pakistan to finish many of these facilities.
View the new report on the Chemical Plants Complex near Dera Ghazi Khan at http://www.isis-online.org/publications/southasia/PakistanExpandingCPC.pdf
View the new report on the New Labs plutonium separation plant near Rawalpindi at http://www.isis-online.org/publications/southasia/PakistanExpandingNewlabs.pdf
Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS)
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