The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is an independent federal agency of the Government of Pakistan, tasked and concerned with research and development of nuclear power, nuclear reactor production, energy security, and the energy conservation. Established in 1956 to address the energy shortage in the country, the agency plays a pivotal role in harnessing the peaceful usage of the nuclear technology by advocating and building the nuclear power infrastructure to uplift the nation into economic prosperity. The PAEC sponsors and promotes the physical sciences research than any other Pakistan's federal agency, which is conducted through its research laboratories and development complexes. Since 1960, the PAEC is also been a major financial sponsor, supporter, and a research partner of the European CERN in Switzerland. Until 2001, the PAEC was the civilian federal oversight agency that manifested the control of atomic radiation, research and development of the nuclear weapons, and eventually their testings. These functions were eventually taken over by two superseding federal agencies– Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) and the National Command Authority (NCA)– which allowed the agency to revert to its original civilian mission on peaceful usage of the nuclear technology.
Overview
Early history
After the announcement of the Atoms for Peace program by the United States in 1953, Prime Minister Huseyn Suhrawardy formed the commission to investigate the venues of nuclear power to ensure the energy security that would contribute to the economic uplift and the prosperity of the nation on 23 March 1956. Efforts directed towards acquiring the nuclear power plant for producing electricity, food irradiation to improve the quality of nation's agriculture, and medicines to improve the overall health of the nation failed due to lack of manpower, scientific awareness, and the funds from the Planning Commission. In 1960, the Atomic Energy Commission sat up the scholarship program that would address the issue of lack of manpower by sending first the 600 scientists to the universities of the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany as recommended by the written letters by commission's members. With approved budget of ₨.46.5 million (USD 9.8 million ($99.8 million in 2025) with adjusted inflation) in 1960–65 by the Ayub administration, the design and planning of the commercial nuclear power plant, research reactor, and the fuel bank facility began as well as the establishment of the nation's first national laboratory dedicated for the understanding of the nuclear physics. Construction of the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology in Nilore began in 1963 to dedicated to fill the AEC's mission and partnered with the local fertilizer companies to build the heavy water facility in Multan in 1964. Facilitated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1965, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission entered in negotiation with the Canadian General Electric company to supply the smaller 137 megawatts (0.137 GW) (thermal) nuclear power reactor based on the CANDU design basis but with Pakistani engineering modifications affordability and the required energy needs. Between 1969 and 1971, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission entered in talks with the United Kingdom to establish the nuclear reprocessing site and partnered with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) for reactor operations training.
After the war with India in 1971, the Atomic Energy Commission was tasked and put in charge of researching and developing the nuclear explosive devices to avert and further divert India's threat to Pakistan as a means of national survival in 1972. Under the Bhutto administration, the Atomic Energy Commission's special weapons program under Munir Ahmad Khan oversaw the operation of Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology, devoted primarily to understanding of the equation of state of plutonium, the overall weapons development, and partnered with the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers to handle the engineering aspects of the nuclear weapons. In 1972, the Atomic Energy Commission inaugurated and announced the successful criticality operation of the nation's first nuclear power plant– a distinction which made Pakistan a first nuclear power country in the Islamic world. In a direct response to India's first nuclear test in 1974, the agency initiated the uranium enrichment program (Codename: Project-706), which was later found to be difficult to pursue without a team of qualified metallurgists and underscored a dedicated laboratory to understand the equation of state of uranium. In 1975–76, the Atomic Energy Commission also began a program of regular nuclear weapons testing when its geologists selected the Ras Koh Range as a primary weapons-testing venue. During this period, the Atomic Energy Commission supported and promoted much of the fundamental research, the vast majority of its early budget was devoted to nuclear weapons development and production. In 1980, the Atomic Energy Commission became connected with the Ministry of Defense and had complete oversight on variety of weapons design, diagnostics certification, and testing viability. Furthermore, the agency also had the responsibility of nuclear regulation while controlling the military and civilian sides of nuclear energy, promoting them and at the same time attempting to regulate them. The Atomic Energy Commission through its weapons-testing laboratories had developed the various physics diagnostics to carry out the energy measurements and compute blast yields of their design through supercomputing. On 11 March 1983, the Atomic Energy Commission oversaw the success of the first subcritical nuclear testing (Kirana-I) which continued over the successive years. In a direct response and to maintain the balance of power in South Asia, the Sharif administration in Pakistan ordered the Atomic Energy Commission to carry out nation's first nuclear nuclear weapons testing at its nuclear test site on 28 May 1998, which was followed by six nuclear test on 30 May 1998. Over the issue of validating the operational deterrence and effectiveness of the nuclear regulation, the Atomic Energy Commission's mission was reverted to original civilian mission when the control over of nuclear weapons was given to the National Command Authority and the nuclear safety regulations to the Nuclear Regulatory Authority in 2001.
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