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Former name | See note[note 1] |
|---|---|
| Established | 31 July 1976 (1976-07-31)[1] |
Field of research | National security Fundamental science |
| Location | Kahuta inRawalpindi, Punjab,Pakistan 33°37′16″N73°22′41″E / 33.621106°N 73.3781°E /33.621106; 73.3781 |
| Affiliations | |
Operating agency | Strategic Plans Division on behalf of theNational Command Authority |
| Website | krl.com.pk |
| Map | |
  Khan Research Laboratories (Pakistan) Show map of Pakistan | |
TheDr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories (shortened asKRL),[2] is afederally fundedresearch and development laboratory located inKahuta at a short distance fromRawalpindi inPunjab,Pakistan. Established in 1976, the laboratory is best known for its central role in Pakistan'snuclear weapons program and its understanding the nuclear science.[3]
Established in 1976 as Engineering Research Laboratories, it was originally organized as atop-secretindustrial plant dedicated toenrichment as a response to the India's detonation ofits first nuclear bomb in 1974.[3] The site was chosen for its remote yet relatively accessible location near Rawalpindi.[3][4][5] In the 1970s, the site was the cornerstone of the first stage of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, and serves as the center for conducting the nuclear scientific research.[6]
It is globally known for its research ingas centrifuges to produce theenriched uranium; and in past, it has competed with thePakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology on widevariety of weapon designs but it is now have focused in civilian missions, including thenational security,fusion science andsupercomputing.[6][7]
As an aftermath of the India'sfirst nuclear test, thePakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) launched the studies on isotope separation throughgas method by setting theplant asProject-706 underBashiruddin Mahmood, a nuclear engineer, in 1974.[8]
In 1976, the difficulties encountered in preliminary studies under Mahmood on understanding theequation of state ofuranium indicated the need for a dedicated laboratory solely to that purpose.[8] Work on establishing the laboratory was initiated by the army'sEngineer-in-Chief who selectedBrigadierZahid Ali Akbar to conduct the topographic survey.[9][10] Because the experiments were considered too dangerous to conduct in a major city, Brig. Akbar recommended relocating operations to an isolated, remote mountainous area and selectedKahuta, a short distance from Rawalpindi.[11]
On 31 July 1976, the laboratory was established as Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) withAbdul Qadeer Khan as its principal investigator.[11] The officers and personnel from theCorps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) were central in working and supporting the operations of the lab withMajor-GeneralAli Nawab acting itsprinciple engineer in 1979.[12][13] More broadly, the ERL was intended to spur innovation and provide competition to theweapon design with thesecond lab in Nilore running under the PAEC's contract.[8] Under Abdul Qadeer Khan, the work on equation of state of uranium began with drs.G. D. Alam,Tasneem Shah, andAnwar Ali who served as co-principle investigators at Kahuta.[5][14]
Initially, a large numbers of centrifuges were deployed but they were scaled down to few centrifuges after revised critical mass calculations on equation of state of uranium by Abdul Qadeer Khan and his co-investigators in 1980s.[8]
Its official name was changed to theKhan Research Laboratory in 1981 by Presidential decree, which also allowed its status as a national defense laboratory.[8][15]
Globally, the KRL has a prestige in conducting research into properties and behavior of uranium to learn how uranium is scaled to industrial-to-weapon-grade level and how its equation of state changes under the extreme pressure and temperature. For such investigation, principle investigators employed theZippe method (local designation: Khan Centrifuge) that runs about 100,000rpm on continuous at an average of 10 years.: 181 [8]
TheUranium (U92) is anaturally occurring element that can be found in low levels within all rock, soil, and water. TheNatural uranium (Unat) consists of three isotopes,Uranium-238 (U238), which is 99.28% natural abundance, theUranium-235 (U235), which is subject of interest for energy measurement available only at 0.71%, and uranium-234, with proportion of 0.0054%.: 101 [8] The Uranium-235 isfissile but at 0.71% it cannot sustain thechain reaction in a nuclear weapon environment, which requires the 90% of U235 but remains uncontrolled whose reaction takes place in a short amount of time– in a nanosecond time.: 101 [8] For this purposes, the gas centrifuge methods using the vacuum technology were established but this method took several years to master, and it was not until the 1985 when thehighly enriched uranium (HEU) was first made available.: 140 [8]
The computer simulations and experiments on uranium are conducted by KRL to understand the structural, electrical, material, and chemical properties as well as uranium fused allows and to determine how these materials change over time under temperature and pressure difference.[16]
The laboratory has attracted negative publicity from a number of events, mainly due to its past research affiliation withNorth Korea andChina.: 245–246 [8][17] In 1996, theClinton administration accused China of approving the tender released for the KRL on the acquisition of specially-mademagnetic rings for special suspension bearings mounted at the top of rotating centrifuge cylinders.: 5 [18] In 1999, a visit by theSaudi dignitaries accompanied by the Sharif administration personnel to the laboratory also garnered further negative publicity at the Western media that raised fears of proliferation in the middle east.[19]
In 2003, the Pakistani nuclear physicist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was accused of (and later pardoned) for mishandling the classified information on the weapons-related designs and the gas centrifuges passed onto theLibya, India,North Korea,Iran, and China in early 1980s that were taken from the lab's computers.: 189, 255 [8]
In order to provide medical facilities to its employees and general public, KRL operates a 350-bed hospital inIslamabad. The hospital provides services for both inpatients and outpatients. The hospital is providing emergency care, surgery, surgical ICU,pediatrics, and specialist OPDs among other medical services.
The hospital also encompasses ablood bank, laboratories,radiology department, andpharmacy as well.[20] The administration structure of KRL Hospital issemi-autonomous and it currently operates under Kahuta Research Laboratories (KRL) Welfare Trust.[21]
The academic research programs and development opportunities at the KRL are supported by the physics departments of theGovernment College University inLahore inPunjab and theUniversity of Karachi inSindh.[22][23] The KRL supports its physics program through funding and providing scholarship to physics and engineering students at theGovernment College University.[24]
The continuing efforts to make the laboratories more science efficient led theMinistry of Science (MoST) to grant a three research and fellowship programmes with theGovernment College University with the support of Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF).[25][26] Since 1980 at present, the KRL continues to develop the research work oncomputational mathematics, supercomputing and advanced mathematics to the extended applications to natural sciences.[27]
In 1999, the KRL established a research institute oncomputer science at Kahuta, which was later integrated toUniversity of Engineering and Technology inTaxila.[28]
The civilian research onbiotechnology,biology andGenetic Engineering is supported by the KRL at theUniversity of Karachi,[29] with the support from Pakistan Science Foundation.[30] The KRL organized a conference onComputational biology in Islamabad to present overview of the scope of computational sciences.[31]
From 1976 till 1978, the lab depended heavily on theUrenco Group's method on developing the gas centrifuge, which it says to be suffering due to incomplete mechanical parts and differential equation problems involving rotational dynamics on a fixed axis.: 144 [8] Dependence on the Zippe-type was lessened when more effective and innovative methods were developed that culminated from the studies conducted under Drs. A.Q. Khan, G.D. Allam and T. S. Shah.: 139–162 [8] In Pakistan MoD laboratory system, the KRL is a senior laboratory executes missions relating to national security.[17]
The technology ofkrytron was also built at the KRL which was then transferred toHeavy Industries Taxila, an army laboratory based in Taxila.[3] Besides the understanding the equation of state of uranium, the KRL also embarked on pioneering work on vacuum science and its extended application in plasma physics– its first paper on plasma physics was written in 1998.[citation needed] In 1983, the KRL was able to acquire its very firstcomputer numerical control (CNC) from China to provide machining of the high-strengthultracentrifuges which was able to produce theuranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas that the KRL reduced touranium metal and machined into weapon pits.: 437 [8] In 1987, the KRL began publishing a series of academic articles onnumerics andcomputational methods for centrifuge design, including a 1987 article co-authored by Abdul Qadeer Khan on techniques for balancing sophisticatedultracentrifuge rotors.[32]
In the 1990s, the mathematicians at the KRL had built the nation's first high performance computing machines and the supercomputer that were installed installed at the facility.[5] The subcritical experiments on weapon-grade uranium began when a parallelComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) division was established which specialized in conducting high performance computations onshock waves inweapons effect from the outer surface to the inner core by using difficultdifferential equations of the state of the materials used in the bomb under high pressure.[14]
The KRL was major participant in MoD'sHatf program (lit.Target). The lab served as a chief designer of the warhead design, control systems, and rocket engine development of theHatf andGhauri weapon systems.[17][19]
Since the 1980s, the KRL is involved in numerous military equipment and conventional weaponry development projects. The resulting systems have been put into service by the Pakistan's military and exported to other friendly nations. The following is a list of known equipment produced under these projects:[17][19]
The KRL is owned by the federalGovernment of Pakistan and sponsors the laboratory through theMinistry of Defence as its continuing efforts to make the laboratory more efficient.[35] In its early years, theCorps of Engineers had served its first prime contractor from 1976 until 1977.[14] From 1977 till 1981, theCorps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering served on the MoD's contract with Maj-Gen. Ali Nawab overseeing the lab's operations.[5] Since then, the lab's corporate leadership has been entrusted with civilian leadership through contracts awarded by the MoD.[5]
At the behest of the laboratory director in 1981, the tender was opened to theUniversity of Karachi and theGovernment College University to oversee its operations.[5] The KRL's research and university affiliation with the University of Karachi still continues to this date.[28]
With the formation of the federalNational Command Authority in 2001, the agency took over the lab's business operations when it awarded theStrategic Plans Division as KRL's prime contractor, which it has been managing the lab operation since 2004.[35]
In 2010, the Strategic Plans Division won its first contract with Malaysian Armed Forces when it was reported that the KRL was to a contractor for weapons export through the Malaysian businessmanShah Hakim Zain to export weapons to Malaysia.[36]
Khan Research Laboratories Football Club, commonly abbreviated as KRL FC, is the football section of Khan Research Laboratories. The club has won Pakistan's top-flight football league multiple times. In the 2018-19 season, KRL FC recorded the highest average home league attendance in the top-tier football league of Pakistan.
The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:
| Season | League average | Best club | Best club average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | 767 | KRL FC | 1,838 |
Source: League page on Wikipedia
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