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.
After having mastered the nuclear technology (both civil and military), France started to shut down its coal mines. In the year 1987-1988, France closed its coal mines. Some of these coal mines have become museums. Around 80 percent of the electricity in France is generated by civil nuclear reactors. No gasification of coal was tried in France.
Pakistan already has Uranium mines and has mastered the Uranium Enrichment technology, so logically now Pakistan should build Pressurized Light Water Nuclear Reactors (PLWR). PLWRs use 4-5 percent Enriched Uranium (U-235) and ordinary water as coolant-cum-moderator. Heavy Water Reactors use heavy water as coolant-cum-moderator. LWRs are being built at Chashma with the help of China but Pakistan should develop its own design. If admitted into the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG), Pakistan would be able to export not only the Enriched Uranium but also its reactors.
Even heavy water reactors should not pose a problem because Pakistan has facilities for the production of heavy water (as per international publications). India has successfully used / modified Canadian Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) designs for the generation of electricity. Now India is trying to get international technical support for designing, manufacturing, assembling and operating Pressurized Light Water Reactors (PLWR).
The gigantic infrastructures for mining of raw Uranium, its chemical treatment, enrichment of Uranium, heavy water production and fuel reprocessing should be utilised for running civil nuclear reactors for generation of electricity.
Nuclear reactors designed for the production of electricity use either Natural Uranium (Heavy Water Designs) or Lightly Enriched Uranium (Light Water Designs). Naval reactors on the other hand are compact and use Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU). Currently both India and Pakistan do not possess indigenous naval reactors although India is pursuing a project for its INS Arihant submarine. In the past, however, India did lease a nuclear-powered submarine (INS Chakra) from the ex-Soviet Union. Pakistan, it seems, to have contended itself with Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system for its French-made Agosta 90B diesel-electric submarines.
Several aircraft carriers, some cruisers and all nuclear-missile equipped submarines are powered by naval nuclear reactors. Infact, nuclear weapon states no longer operate diesel-electric submarines. They exclusively use nuclear-propelled submarines (both attack and ballistic missile-carrying submarines). Nuclear fuel enables these submarines to operate silently and remain submerged (or on patrol) for very long periods. Some commercial ships also use nuclear propulsion (for example a Russian ice breaker ship). Overall, some 400 naval vessels are using nuclear propulsion today [3]..
Around 80 percent of the world's civil nuclear reactors are of Light Water Reactor design (Boiling and Pressurized types) [3].. But both India and Pakistan opted for Heavy Water Reactors from Canada under Atoms for Peace Program of 1960s (India also acquired a Boiling Light Water Reactor from USA). As mentioned above, these reactors needed heavy water and therefore both Uranium and heavy water had to be imported. But perhaps both countries thought that they might be able to extract Plutonium from these heavy water reactors for use in nuclear weapons.
Generally, the reactors designed for the generation of electricity are poor sources of weapons-grade Plutonium. In 2006, there were 438 nuclear reactors in 54 countries of the world [3]., but only few have made nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons use either Enriched Uranium or Enriched Plutonium as fissile material. A compact weapon would need either 90 percent Uranium-235 or around 90 percent Plutonium-239 for even more compact design. If the percentage of enrichment is decreased, it would result in a bulky weapon.
Plutonium-239 is used in all modern compact weapons. But the problem is that Plutonium is not found in nature (almost) and has to be made artificially. Uranium fuel used in reactors yields some Plutonium in its spent fuel. To give an estimate, 500 Kg of 4 percent enriched Uranium yields 5 Kg of Plutonium [1]. But this spent fuel has to be removed from reactor at a critical moment so as not to increase the proportion of undesired Plutonium isotopes. Separating Plutonium from Uranium and other fission products is called fuel reprocessing. In the 1970s, Pakistan tried to acquire a nuclear reprocessing plant from France but the deal could not be reached (press reports indicated US pressure).
The separated Plutonium contains many different isotopes of Plutonium and Pu-239 has to be separated from them. In fact, Plutonium has 15 different isotopes. Now it is a basic fact that isotopes have same chemical properties and different physical properties. It is therefore impossible to separate isotopes using chemical reactions alone. Something of the sort of Uranium enrichment has to be employed. It is a missing link in the nuclear weapons program of both India and Pakistan that they do not mention anything about the Plutonium enrichment. Even the otherwise detailed book of Brigadier (R) Feroz H. Khan [2] does not provide information on it.
Both countries claimed to possess tactical nuclear (both ballistic and cruise) missiles (like Pakistan's Nasr and India's Prahar missiles) without even giving unofficial information (wikipedia type) on the Plutonium enrichment. This is because tactical missiles need compact warheads and only Plutonium allows compactness (for high enrichement level, the significant mass is 25 Kg for Uranium-235 and is 8 Kg for Plutonium-239) [3].
India was however cautious in declaring Prahar as a nuclear missile, merely stating that it can carry a variety of warheads. If there is no facility for Plutonium enrichment in a country and it claims possession of tactical nuclear warheads, it would certainly become a laughing stock for the whole world.
[1] Comprendre l'Avenir: L'Energie Nucleaire, Bertrand Barré, Pierre-René Bauquis (2007)
[2] Eating Grass: The Making of Pakistani Bomb, Feroz H. Khan, Stanford University Press (2012).
[3] Atlas Mondial du Nucléaire, Bruno Tertrais, 2011.
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