Occasionally, very occasionally, the military mind here hits upon a good idea. The offer to supply nuclear fuel cycle services under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards may be one of those ideas. Let’s begin with the science bit in this maze of scientific jargon and high-stakes international politics.
What Pakistan has offered is analogous to an oil-refining facility. If you have a generator and barrels of crude oil, you can’t very well pour the oil into the generator and flip the switch; you need petrol or diesel. So for countries looking to, say, set up a nuclear power plant — all the rage nowadays — Pakistan is offering to prepare the nuclear fuel that will power the plant which will produce electricity. That’s all we really need to know.
Why is this a good idea?
Pakistan is the bad boy of the nuclear world. Well, maybe not as bad as North Korea or Iran, but bad enough. Neither are we truly accepted as one of the members of the nuclear club nor are we trusted with the technology.
The reasons for this are varied. First and foremost, we screwed up: see A.Q. Khan. (Sure, there may be explanations and mitigating circumstances but we made our own bed.) Then we have loads of jihadis running around blowing up stuff (and themselves). We have an Army which jealously guards its nukes but forgot to inoculate itself against its own progeny, the aforementioned jihadis.
http://newageislam.com/making-sense-of-pakistan%E2%80%99s-nuclear-moves/islam-and-politics/d/2732
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9:32 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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