Pakistani Nuclear Weapons Safety

SAFETY OF PAKISTAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Pakistanis now will pounce on the US Nuclear threat initiative and gloat that Pakistanis are ranked one position higher than India when it comes to the safety of nuclear materials, such facial comparisons should be avoided since securing nuclear weapons is a grave matter that should transcend nationalist concern. A bit of humility is called for. Pakistanis are still ranked only upto 20 out of 25 countries of the world, which is nothing to be proud of. They should look upon the improvements of their nuclear safety. They have received increased scores for laws that provide  more on-site protection of nuclear material and better security reviews and figure even the smallest accident can lead to mass evacuations and years, even decades, of problems caused by fallout ways to do better. Concerns have recently been raised about two new nuclear reactors being built in Karachi, which will be more powerful than all of their other reactors combined, whose design is a new and untested and hence could prove a safety threat.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons will always be the subject of international scrutiny both because of their past history of proliferation and the fear that militant may be able to get their hands on nuclear material. The latter concern is there are perennial stories in the US media about how Pakistanis weapons could fall into the wrong hands.  These worries are slightly overblown. The nuclear command authority has so far proved competent at guarding the safety of his nuclear technology and the command and control structure should prevent non-state actors from ever acquiring nuclear weapons. Another hand, Pakistanis may safely believe that the US is not about to grand them the same kind of nuclear deal as it gave to India and they can expect worries about their arsenal to be aired regularly. The greater concerns will arterials used and the procedures in place to guarantee that all handling and transportation is safe. No matter how safe they may think their weapons are, Pakistanis should still strive to do better onward in coming future.