Pakistan Expanding its Nuclear Capability

Pakistan is building two of the developing world’s largest plutonium production reactors, which experts say could lead to improvements in the quantity and quality of the country’s nuclear arsenal, now estimated at 60 to 80 weapons.  David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security tracks the expansion of Pakistan's nuclear program. “It’s a lot further along than we expected,” he says, adding that Pakistani officials are committing limited national resources to building up the country’s nuclear arsenal, resources he and others note have been supplemented and replenished by U.S. aid.  Zia Mian of Princeton University's Project on Science and Global Security explains that he addition of the two reactors does two things. “It allows them to make a lot more warheads, four or five a year, but it also allows them to make much lighter and more complex weapons for longer-range missiles and cruise missiles. "