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Pak capable of producing plutonium for weapons use: US
Pakistan, which already has uranium-based nuclear arms, has developed the capability to produce plutonium for potential weapons use, a senior US official said.
Pakistan's capability to produce plutonium for potential weapons use is a "recent" development, director of the US defence intelligence agency, Admiral Lowell E Jacoby, told Congress Friday.
Earlier last month, Jacoby had told a Senate committee that Pakistan and India are continuing to expand and modernise their nuclear programmes.
He had said that nuclear "weapons stockpiles in India and Pakistan are expected to grow" in coming years, an estimate confirmed by other government intelligence agencies.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a Washington-based research group specialising in nuclear matters, announced as long as five years ago that Pakistan was "nearing fruition" in its efforts to produce plutonium, the Washington post noted, but no US government agency had confirmed publicly that Pakistan had done so.
Friday, other sources within the US intelligence community agreed with Admiral Jacoby that Pakistan has indeed achieved the plutonium capability.
David Albright, a nuclear physicist who is president of the ISIS, said: "it is a big concern that we never talk about pakistan moving ahead producing both enriched uranium and plutonium bombs.. The US is not protesting the idea that both Pakistan and India are modernizing their stockpiles to make them more deliverable and in the process increasing the risk of accidental war."
source
Pak capable of producing plutonium for weapons use: US
Pakistan, which already has uranium-based nuclear arms, has developed the capability to produce plutonium for potential weapons use, a senior US official said.
Pakistan's capability to produce plutonium for potential weapons use is a "recent" development, director of the US defence intelligence agency, Admiral Lowell E Jacoby, told Congress Friday.
Earlier last month, Jacoby had told a Senate committee that Pakistan and India are continuing to expand and modernise their nuclear programmes.
He had said that nuclear "weapons stockpiles in India and Pakistan are expected to grow" in coming years, an estimate confirmed by other government intelligence agencies.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a Washington-based research group specialising in nuclear matters, announced as long as five years ago that Pakistan was "nearing fruition" in its efforts to produce plutonium, the Washington post noted, but no US government agency had confirmed publicly that Pakistan had done so.
Friday, other sources within the US intelligence community agreed with Admiral Jacoby that Pakistan has indeed achieved the plutonium capability.
David Albright, a nuclear physicist who is president of the ISIS, said: "it is a big concern that we never talk about pakistan moving ahead producing both enriched uranium and plutonium bombs.. The US is not protesting the idea that both Pakistan and India are modernizing their stockpiles to make them more deliverable and in the process increasing the risk of accidental war."
source