Information sought on Kahuta Nuclear facility in pakistan
A reader sent the following to us requesting for more information and confirmation:
The epicentre of the quake and Kahuta Nuclear facility in pakistan is approximately 100 Km apart. seeing the zone of disaster it would be prudent to expect some damage to Kahuta. A general reassurance is required that the nuclear complex is safe. Can somebody confirm this please.If anyone has more details about the above, please send us an email with subject line as "QH NuclearFacility-Info" or leave a comment here with more information.
Angelo Embuldeniya at 4:31 am |
As far as I can tell, Kahuta is even closer than mentioned in the post, only 80km from the epicenter on my map. Anyway, concerned, I asked IAEA for info, so far no reply. Friends in Islamabad also could not say anything. In the news this morning I found this:
http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php?action=fullnews&id=34121 This comes from the Army.
Kahuta is the country's main uranium enrichment facility as well as a research station. I believe the IAEA describes it as "unsafeguarded".
david
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051011/wl_sthasia_afp/quakesasiapakistanindianuclear_051011075512
Something else from yesterday. http://indiamonitor.com/news/readNews.jsp?ni=8997 This article from India, I suppose it could be some wishful thinking about terrorist training camps being wiped out. But it does say one of the worst hit areas was (among others) Kahuta and one would expect the laboratory was affected in some way. I guess we should hope a facility like this in an earthquake zone would have been built to the highest standards.
david