New Delhi amplifies N-weapons site: Report

India has expanded a secret site that could be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, says a US think tank.

WASHINGTON: India has expanded a secret site that could be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, a US think tank said, citing satellite images.

The Institute for Science and International Security, a private group opposed to nuclear proliferation, said India appeared to be finishing a second gas centrifuge facility at its Rare Materials Plant near the southern city of Mysore.

“This new facility could significantly increase India’s ability to produce highly enriched uranium for military purposes, including more powerful nuclear weapons,” the institute said in a report that analyzed an image taken in April.

The institute said that India started building a second centrifuge plant near Mysore in 2010, but it was unclear whether it was a replacement for the first facility at the site or a supplement.

If it is a new facility, “India could have more than doubled its enrichment capacity if the original building continues to function as an enrichment plant,” it said.

India closely guards its nuclear sites and says little about them publicly. In the past, India has complained about footage of sensitive infrastructure taken by commercial satellite services such as Google Earth. 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2013.