China to supply nuclear reactor to Pakistan

China and Pakistan reached a formal agreement last month to construct a third nuclear reactor in Punjab that the Obama administration says will violate Beijing’s promises under an international anti-nuclear weapons accord.

The secret agreement for the Chashma 3 reactor was signed in Beijing during a visit by a delegation from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission from February 15 to 18, according to US intelligence and diplomatic officials quoted by the Washington Times.

The agreement calls for the state-run China National Nuclear Corp to construct a 1,000 megawatt power plant at Chashma, where two earlier Chinese reactors were built.

China last month issued an internal notice to officials within its nuclear establishment and to regional political leaders urging care to avoid any leaks of information about the nuclear deal, which Beijing expects will be controversial, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The reactor deal had been in the works for several years and prompted high-level US government efforts to block the sale because of concerns that it will boost Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme.

The China National Nuclear Corp, China’s main nuclear weapons producer, has been linked in the past to Pakistan’s nuclear arms programme by US intelligence agencies. During the 1990s, the corporation sold thousands of ring magnets to Pakistan that were used in centrifuges that produced highly enriched uranium for weapons.

Recent US intelligence reports indicate that China is in the process of modernising Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal. The arms cooperation is said to include development of a new warhead for Pakistan’s missiles, as well as assistance in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

A Congressional Research Service report published February 13 stated that “Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal probably consists of approximately 90-110 nuclear warheads, although it could be larger.”

“Islamabad is producing fissile material, adding to related production facilities, and deploying additional delivery vehicles,” the report said. “These steps could enable Pakistan to undertake both quantitative and qualitative improvements to its nuclear arsenal.”

The report warned that spent fuel from Karachi and Chasma nuclear power plants are vulnerable to theft or attack.

The Obama administration has not publicly contested the nuclear cooperation between the two countries in the past to avoid upsetting US covert efforts against Islamic terrorism in the region.

The new reactor sale also will undermine the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a voluntary association with no enforcement mechanisms that is viewed as a key tool in the Obama administration’s effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

China in 2004 joined the group and agreed not to sell additional reactors to Pakistan beyond the two reactors sold earlier. Under Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines, China is not permitted to sell nuclear goods to any country that is not part of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency.