Khan Research Laboratories

The Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories (shortened as KRL),

Its official name changed to Khan Research Laboratory (KRL) in 1981 by Presidential decree, which also allowed its status as a national defense laboratory. [8]^[9]

History

As an aftermath of the India's first nuclear test, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) launched the studies on isotope separation through gas method by setting the plant as Project-706 under Bashiruddin Mahmood, a nuclear engineer, in 1974.^[8]

In 1976, the difficulties encountered in preliminary studies under Mahmood on understanding the

On July 31, 1976, the laboratory was established as Engineering Research Laboratories (ERL) with Abdul Qadeer Khan as its principle investigator.[12] The officers and personnel from the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME) were central in working and supporting the operations of the lab with Major-General Ali Nawab acting its principle engineer in 1979.^[13][14] More broadly, the ERL was intended to spur innovation and provide competition to the weapon design with the second 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, and Anwar Ali who served as co-principle investigators at Kahuta.^[5][15]

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]

Uranium research

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 the Zippe method (local designation: Khan Centrifuge) that runs about 100,000 rpm on continuous at an average of 10 years.^{: 181 [8]}

The

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]

Negative publicity

The laboratory has attracted negative publicity from a number of events, mainly due to its past research affiliation with

In 2003, the Pakistani nuclear physicist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was accused of (and later pardoned) for mishandling the classified information on the designs of the gas centrifuges to Libya, North Korea, Iran, and China in 1980s that were taken from the lab's computers.^{: 255 [8]}

Extended research

The academic research programs and development opportunities at the KRL are supported by the physics departments of the

The continuing efforts to make the laboratories more science efficient led the Ministry of Science (MoST) to grant a three research and fellowship programmes with the Government College University with the support of Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF).^[23][24] Since 1980 at present, the KRL continues to develop the research work on computational mathematics, supercomputing and advanced mathematics to the extended applications to natural sciences.^[25]

In 1999, the KRL established a research institute on

From 1976 till 1978, the lab depended heavily on the Urenco 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 of

• Hatf-I – first tested in 1989.
• Ghauri-I (Hatf V) – first tested in 1999.
• Ghauri-II – has a range of 2,000–2,500 km.

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]

• Guided missiles:
  • MANPADS
    .
  • Baktar-Shikan man-portable anti-tank guided missile
    (ATGM).
  • Modules for the BGM-71 TOW ATGM.
• Electrical and electronic equipment:
  • Power conditioners for the above missile systems.
  • Switched-mode power supplies for the following air defence systems:
    • LAADS radar,
      Skyguard radar, Air Defense Automation System.^{[citation needed}
      ]
• Equipment for clearance of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, including remote control mine exploders (RCME) and mine-sweeping line charges.
• Laser equipment:
  • Laser range-finders, laser warning receivers, laser aiming devices, a laser actuated targeting system for training tank gunners.^{[citation needed}
    ]
• Reactive armour kits for armoured vehicles and APFS-DS anti-tank ammunition for main battle tanks.
• Digital goniometers.
• Electronic Voting Machine (EVM)– the KRL entered in competition with National Institute of Electronics (NIE) and Indra Sistemas of Spain to produce and demonstrate the usage of electronic voting machines.^[31] Eventually, the Election Commission of Pakistan awarded the contract to KRL for the final design and production of the electronic voting machines in 2018.^[32]

The KRL is owned by the federal Government of Pakistan and sponsors the laboratory through the Ministry of Defence as its continuing efforts to make the laboratory more efficient.^[33] In its early years, the Corps of Engineers had served its first prime contractor from 1976 until 1977.^[15] From 1977 till 1981, the Corps 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 the University of Karachi and the Government College University to oversee its operations.^[5] The KRL's research and university affiliation with the University of Karachi still continues to this date.^[26]

With the formation of the federal

References