ISLAMABAD, March 27: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has decided to set up new laboratories and facilities to meet the requirements of sustainability and self-reliance. Informed sources told Dawn that the commission had sought government’s permission to upgrade and expand the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (Pinstech) at a cost of Rs2.5 billion during the current year in order to meet new challenges.

The PAEC says that soon since the nuclear tests by Pakistan on May 28, 1998, and the attack on World Trade Centre in New York on Sept 11, 2001, Pinstech has been facing “very serious threats/problems of embargo by foreign companies towards the supply of high-precision scientific and technical equipment and material”.

“This situation calls for the need to take an urgent step forward for the extension of Pinstech laboratories, Phase-II, so that state-of-the-art scientific and technical facilities can be established at the developed site without any delay to face the challenges of the WTO, and to keep pace with the regional nuclear powers and other established nuclear capable states of Europe and North America,” the PAEC has informed the authorities.

It said the construction of high-tech laboratories were necessary to enhance capacity for research and development in the field of nuclear fuel cycle which was vital for the survival of Pakistan’s nuclear and defence programmes in view of trade sanctions and embargo imposed by the developed countries on Muslim states.

It maintained that for sustainable operation and maintenance of the already established nuclear research installations and facilities at Pinstech and other applied research institutes of the PAEC, and to meet the future requirements of nuclear research and defence-related research and development programmes, establishment of the high-tech facilities was imperative.