Posted:
April 9, 2008
Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from an Associated Press story by Paul Alexander that was published on-line on April 8.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A gas leak sparked an explosion and fire Tuesday (April
8) at a nuclear plant that is believed to produce enriched plutonium for
Pakistan’s atomic weapons program. Two workers were killed.
The Khushab heavy water plant was shut down while undergoing annual
maintenance at the time, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission said. The
commission evacuated the plant but assured the public that there was no risk of
exposure outside the sprawling facility southeast of the capital, Islamabad.
The “situation was immediately brought under control, and two workers
lost their lives while controlling the incident,” the commission said.
It said the leaking gas was burned off by plant equipment and that the cause
was under investigation.
The government claims Khushab produces electricity. Last year, the
Washington-based Institute of Science for International Security said the plant
has three reactors, including two that were still under construction last June.
It cited satellite photos of the sprawling site that is under military control.
Police near the plant said they were advised by plant officials to
prepare buses for a wider evacuation, but then were told they would not be
needed.
Hamid Mukhtar Gondal, police chief for the district where Khushab is
located, said he was told that an accidental blast was caused by cylinders of
an unspecified gas.
“After the blast, the building caught fire,” Gondal told The Associated
Press. “Two men sustained burns and died on the way to a hospital.
“At the moment, with the help of God, everything is under control,” he
said. “The fire has been put out. There is no spread of poisonous gas at all.”
Ghulam Muhammad, the mayor of the neighboring town of Khushab, said
there was initial panic as the plant and the residential colony for workers
were evacuated and roadblocks thrown up to cordon off the area.
Within three hours, plant management gave an all clear and removed the
roadblocks, he said, adding he was unhappy that local officials were not immediately
told of the incident.
Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad in Lahore and Sadaqat Jan and
Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.