As I mentioned earlier I don't know much about PAEC itself. AFAIK Khan's is the single most successful project in Pakistan's enrichment efforts and much of this happened at the now Kahuta facility under his supervision. And if he wants to act like superman I would say let him. You just tell your children it was not a one man effort.
He does not take credit away from PAEC. He is criticizing it to make it better which is what all veterans do. Whether his criticism about the 8GW will hold or not, we can see only in the future. But his words deserve respect and GOP should ask its people whether its plans for energy are on track and whether the coal reserves can be confirmed.
Kahuta was just one project among at least 20 other projects that make up Pakistan's nuclear program. These were set up by the Chairman of PAEC, 1972-1991, Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan.
Kahuta was only one link in a long chain of projects under PAEC set up by Munir Khan that made uranium enrichment possible. These projects comprise the entire front end of the nuclear fuel cycle which included:
1. Several Uranium Exploration Sites.
2. Uranium Mining and Refining Project at Baghachur known as BC-1. This produces the yellow cake with 99% purity which is the ore needed for both uranium and plutonium routes to the bomb. It takes over 10,000 tons of mined and refined uranium for one bomb that uses highly enriched uranium, so you can imaging the scale of the effort.
3. Uranium oxide, tetrafluoride and hexafluoride production Complex known as Chemical Plants Complex, Dera Ghazi Khan. This Complex consists of seven independent plants that produce fluorine compounds and the highly toxic hydrofluoric acid to produce these uranium products on an industrial scale. The oxide is used to make nuclear fuel for the KANUPP and Khushab reactors, the tetrafluoride is used to make uranium metal and most importantly, the hexafluoride gas (UF6) is the feed material and the form in which uranium is passed through the centrifuges at Kahuta. CPC produces over 200 tons of UF6 annually for Kahuta without which no enrichment can be done and the gas-centrifuges will only be enriching air instead of uranium.
4. The Kahuta project itself was planned, launched and set up by PAEC manpower as early as Nov. 1974 under Sultan Bashir Mahmood. Much of the critical equipment and materials for the project has been imported and put in place by PAEC before A Q Khan joined the project. The vast majority of the scientists and engineers for the project came from PAEC, and the physical infrastructure for the first two centrifuge facilities at Chaklala and Sihala were set up by PAEC where most the breakthroughs in centrifuge R&D took place. The most important scientists in this effort were Anwar Ali and Dr. G D Alam. The Kahuta site had also been selected in January 1976 by PAEC. The project was first taken over by A Q Khan in July 1976 when he renamed it ERL, but it remained under PAEC until after Zia came to power whereafter the project was separated from PAEC but placed under a Board in which the Chairman PAEC was a Member.
5. Uranium Metal Lab for converting the enriched uranium gas into metal and machining the metallic core as per the design of the bomb.
As for the plutonium route, the following facilities were set up by Munir Ahmad Khan.
1. In addition to BC-1 and CPC which produces the uranium oxide, a Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Complex was set up at Kundian.
2. A heavy water production plant under Dr. N A Javed, and a tritium production plant, and a 50-70 MW plutonium production reactor were set up at Khushab, under Sultan Bashir Mahmood.
3. A reprocessing plant for separating weapon-grade plutonium contained in the spent fuel of Khushab reactor
As for the nuclear weapons program, the following projects were set up by PAEC:
1. Theoretical Physics Group as early as Dec. 1972 with Dr. Riazuddin as its head.
2. The Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) in March 1974 under Mr. Hafeez Qureshi to coordinate the work of all the specialized groups working on the nuclear device. These groups included:
a. Fast Neutron Physics Group led by Dr. Samar Mubarakmand to produce the neutron source for the bomb.
b. Diagnostic Group to establish facilities for nuclear testing under Dr. Samar.
c. Chemical High Explosive or Wah Group to make the trigger mechanism for the bomb.
d. Precision Engineering and Trigger Electronics Groups for the manufacture and mating of the trigger mechanism with the fissile core, reflectors and high explosive lenses.
e. More then 50 cold test sites at Kirana Hills, Sargodha and six hot test sites at Chaghi and Kharan as early as 1980. It was here that PAEC carried out the first cold test of a working nuclear device as early as March 11, 1983 and then 24 more cold tests till 1992. It was PAEC that carried out the Chaghi and Kharan tests in 1998.
In addition several R&D labs were set up in PINSTECH which became the backbone of the nuclear program. These included the Applied Chemistry and Applied Physics Labs, Laser and Advanced Computer Labs. To provide trained manpower for all projects, a Centre for Nuclear Studies was set up in 1976 which is today a university known as PIEAS and is ranked the top engineering university in Pakistan.
On the nuclear power side, PAEC had, in 1973, along with IAEA's technical support, prepared a long-term energy security plan for Pakistan which called for setting up 24 nuclear power reactors by the end of the century. These were to be built with international assistance as Pakistan, like other developing countries, lacked the industrial base at that time and were hugely capital intensive projects.
However, India's 1974 test put sanctions on Pakistan even for peaceful technology as Pakistan was not ready to sign NPT and had to put all its resources into the nuclear weapons program. But PAEC did design and produce plutonium production reactors without any foreign help but the government did not provide it with the necessary funds for power reactor projects.
In March 1976, the ECNEC approved a 600 MW power reactor at Chashma, and this project could not be followed up due to the overthrow of the Zia regime which was naive about nuclear energy.
The breakthrough came in 1986 when PAEC signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with China which broke international sanctions against Pakistan for power reactors and opened the way for four 300 MW Chashma power reactors. In 1990, France promised to provide PAEC with a 900 MW power reactor, but again with the change of government in Islamabad, the deal could not materialize.
It took India ten years to complete a partially completed RAPS-II power reactor after the Canadians cut of assistance after India's 1974 test, inspite of India's elaborate industrial base. Even today countries like China and India are relying on western help in power reactor projects and that is justification put forward in the Indo-US nuclear deal.
So if the government and international support for power reactor projects does not materialize, the that is not PAEC's fault, which has consistently told the government that Pakistan must invest in nuclear energy. But then the priorities was clearly the nuclear weapons program and the opportunity cost was the energy program.
On the missile side, it was again PAEC that set up the National Development Complex, founded in 1990-91 and set up by 1993. Here Pakistan produced the solid fueled Shaheen series of missiles and is now producing several other ballistics and cruise missile systems under NESCOM.
