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India, Pak all set for more nuclear tests, says paper

Pakistan is believed to have made all preparations to carry out its seventh nuclear test in the Chagai Hills.

The Pakistan Observer, an English-language daily published from Islamabad, has said that the preparations come in the wake of intelligence reports that "India is all set for a hydrogen bomb explosion (sic) in Pokhran very soon".

According to the paper, Pakistan will then sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, thus neutralising the world's adverse reaction.

Quoting diplomatic sources in Islamabad, the paper said "some spy satellites operating in the region had also picked up pictures showing both India and Pakistan's preparations in this regard".

Pakistan's seventh nuclear test will be based on plutonium instead of enriched uranium. The 1998 tests were based on uranium.

About 20kg of uranium is required for one nuclear device. By contrast, only 6kg plutonium is needed for a device, the paper said.

The paper claimed that by making the first move of testing a hydrogen bomb and signing the CTBT, India wanted to gain the benefits of being the first signatory of the treaty from the subcontinent.

Pakistan needs urgent assistance from the International Monetary Fund, but that will only be possible if it signs the CTBT.

Pakistan will have to pay at least $5 billion in January 2001 as loan repayment instalments if it fails to reach an agreement with the IMF soon. In the background of all this, conducting a nuclear test and then signing the CTBT seems like a profitable proposition to Islamabad, the paper said.

Pakistan has built a plutonium production reactor of about 50MW capacity at Khushab. The reactor was completed long ago, but was not loaded with fuel. The reactor will produce about 15kg of plutonium each year, enough for two to three bombs.

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