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How many nuke bombs can India make?

India is capable of producing 455 atomic bombs while Pakistan can build 105, the Jane's Intelligence Review has reported.

The earlier estimate was a conservative 65 and 25, respectively.

The London-based magazine said new information provided by the Canadian Nuclear Association on the performance of the Canadian nuclear reactors in India and Pakistan led to the revised projections.

India has eight Canadian Candu reactors and one Canadian research reactor. Pakistan, for its part, has one Candu reactor, the report said.

Toronto-based author Ian Steer, who specialises in defence and science issues, said in a telephone interview that the new estimates raise the fear that India can produce at least 800 atomic bombs over the next 10 years and Pakistan, more than 200.

As of July 1, India's 10 nuclear power reactors and three of its six research reactors have produced 3,299 kg of plutonium, the key ingredient for atomic weapons, Jane's said.

Seventeen per cent of this, or 567 kg, is weapons-grade. The rest is the less efficient reactor-grade, which can still be used to make nuclear weapons, it said.

Colin Hunt of the Canadian Nuclear Association was quoted, "India's power reactors have not been used to produce weapons-grade plutonium, and none of the reactor-grade plutonium they have produced has been diverted for weapons purposes.''

Jane's, however, noted that if India's reactor-grade plutonium, which is not under international safeguards, is separated from spent nuclear reactor fuel, it can be converted into bombs "very quickly.''

In Pakistan, Jane's said the estimate that the country can produce a maximum of 25 bombs does not take into account the plutonium for at least 38 weapons produced by the country's Candu reactor.

Pakistan now uses highly enriched uranium in its nuclear weapons. But within a few years, a new plutonium production reactor at Khusab would allow the country to build plutonium-based atom bombs.

In addition, the magazine said, a closer analysis of Pakistan's two uranium enrichment plants indicates their combined production to date to be two-and-a-half times greater than previously believed.

UNI

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