Nuclear reactors are mainly used for three purposes, i.e., for generation of electricity, for naval propulsion and for production of Plutonium. All five internationally-recognised nuclear weapon states build their own nuclear reactors (all three types mentioned above). India and Pakistan claim to have nuclear weapons technology but still they have not built their own nuclear reactors capable of electricity generation or naval propulsion. Research and experimental reactors are not included in this study. It must be immediately added that India did modify the Canadian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) design to increase its output. But for light water reactors, it still needs technical assistance.
Canada, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland do not possess nuclear weapons but they build their own nuclear reactors. It should be relatively easy for a nuclear weapons state to build these reactors. For both India and Pakistan, the right and logical route for advancement in the nuclear technology was to first work on indigenous nuclear reactors and then go towards weapons. Even now, they can share their know-how in the civil nuclear sector for mutual benefit.
After mastering nuclear weapons technology, Pakistan's establishment (Planning Commission) turned to the Thar Coal project. It was like, "We are done with the nuclear technology, now lets use coal". The nuclear expertise and infrastructure should have been employed for the generation of much needed electricity by building civil nuclear reactors. Lets see what happened in the developped countries.
