|
Pakistan is one of nine states to possess nuclear weapons, and the only Muslim majority country to do so. Pakistan began development of nuclear weapons in January 1972 under Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who delegated the program to the Chairman of PAEC Munir Ahmad Khan with a commitment to have the bomb ready by the end of 1976.〔Weissman, Steve R. and Herbert Krosney, The Islamic Bomb. New York: Times Book). 1981: page 45.〕〔Chakma, Bhumitra, pg 42, The Politics of Nuclear Weapons in South Asia, Ashgate Publishing Company, Burlington, VT, USA, 2011〕〔http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-296851-An-indomitable-man〕 Since PAEC, consisting of over twenty laboratories and projects under nuclear engineer, Munir Ahmad Khan was falling behind schedule and having considerable difficulty producing fissile material, Abdul Qadeer Khan was brought from Europe by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the end of 1974. As pointed out by Houston Wood, Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA in his article on gas centrifuges, "''The most difficult step in building a nuclear weapon is the production of fissile material''",〔〔 so this work in producing fissile material as head of the ''Kahuta Project'' was pivotal to Pakistan developing the capability to detonate a nuclear bomb by the end of 1984.〔Levy, Adrian and Catherine Scott-Clark, Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons. New York. Walker Publishing Company. 1977: page 112. Print.〕〔http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-252241-A-historic-day〕 The Kahuta Project started under the supervision of a coordination board that oversaw the activities of ERL and the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). The Board consisted of Mr A G N Kazi (secretary general, finance), Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan (secretary general, defence)〔http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-298122-An-indomitable-man〕 and Mr Agha Shahi (secretary general, foreign affairs) and reported directly to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan and General Tikka Khan 〔http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-57145-Defenders-of-Pakistan〕 appointed military engineer, Major General Ali Nawab to the program. Eventually, the supervison passed to Lt General Zahid Ali Akbar in President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's Administration. Moderate uranium enrichment for the production of fissile material was achieved at KRL by April 1978.〔http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-265190-Unsung-heroes〕 Pakistan's nuclear weapons development was in response to neighboring India's development of its nuclear programme. Bhutto called a meeting of senior scientists and engineers on 20 January 1972, in Multan, which came to known as "''Multan meeting''". Bhutto was the main architect of this programme, and it was here that Bhutto orchestrated nuclear weapons programme and rallied Pakistan's academic scientists to build the atomic bomb in three years for national survival. At the Multan meeting, Bhutto also appointed Munir Ahmad Khan as chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), who, until then, had been working as Director at the nuclear power and Reactor Division of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in Vienna, Austria. In December 1972, Abdus Salam led the establishment of Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) as he called scientists working at ICTP to report to Munir Ahmad Khan. This marked the beginning of Pakistan's pursuit of nuclear deterrence capability. Following India's surprise nuclear test, codenamed ''Smiling Buddha'' in 1974, the first confirmed nuclear test by a nation outside the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council, the goal to develop nuclear weapons received considerable impetus. Finally, on 28 May 1998, a few weeks after India's second nuclear test (''Operation Shakti''), Pakistan detonated five nuclear devices in the Ras Koh Hills in the Chagai district, Balochistan. This operation was named ''Chagai-I'' by Pakistan, the underground iron-steel tunnel having been long-constructed by provincial martial law administrator General Rahimuddin Khan during the 1980s. The last test of Pakistan was conducted at the sandy Kharan Desert under the codename ''Chagai-II'', also in Balochistan, on 30 May 1998. Pakistan's fissile material production takes place at Nilore, Kahuta, and Khushab/Jauharabad, where weapons-grade plutonium is refined. Pakistan thus became the seventh country in the world to successfully develop and test nuclear weapons.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Pakistan Nuclear Weapons )〕 Although, according to a letter sent by A.Q. Khan to General Zia, the capability to detonate a nuclear bomb using highly enriched uranium as fissile material produced at KRL had been achieved by KRL in 1984.〔〔 == History == After the Partition of India in 1947, India and Pakistan have been in conflict over several issues, including the disputed territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.〔Ganguly S, Kapur SP. India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia (Contemporary Asia in the World) 2010 Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231512824〕 The uneasy relationships with India, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union, and the energy shortage explains its motivation to become a nuclear power as part of its defence and energy strategies.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|