Tuesday, October 11, 2005
All nuke facilities safe, says Pak
Indo-Asian News Service
Islamabad, October 11, 2005
Pakistan said on Tuesday its nuclear warheads and installations were safe after the devastating earthquake that has caused over 21,000 deaths.
"There is no danger to our nuclear installations and weapons from the earthquake," military spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday.
"They are fully safe," said Sultan, adding he was not immediately able to say up to what intensity the Pakistani nuclear facilities could withstand earthquakes and aftershocks.
Saturday's quake caused massive structural damage in the North West Frontier Province and Pakistani Kashmir, wiping out whole villages and laying waste to some 70 per cent of Muzaffarabad city.
Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of physics at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University, said the quake posed more danger to nuclear power plants than nuclear weapons.
Pakistan's main uranium enrichment facility at Kahuta near Islamabad is located about 70 km southeast of Kashmir.
"It will not be a military installation, the danger could be at Chashma," Hoodbhoy, also an activist against nuclear weapons, told a TV news channel. He was referring to the pressurised water reactor-type nuclear power plant at Chashma.
"Chashma is in a seismic zone and if an earthquake is centred close to it (the power plant) there could be loss of radioactive material and a Chernobyl-like situation," Hoodbhoy said.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.