Analysis of IKONOS Imagery of the
Newly-Identified Heavy Water Plant at Khushab, Pakistan
16 March 2000
Click on an picture to see the full size image:
- The facility has characteristics similar to many known heavy
- It likely uses a standard process to produce heavy water
with about 15% deuterium (D), then distills it to reactor grade
heavy water (>99.7% D). This is similar to the Kota plant
- The central block of the plant, which contains the large
buildings, several smaller buildings, and a tall scaffolding
(may contain packed columns), could be the part of the plant
used for final purification of the D2O
- The northern block, containing at least four tall columns,
may contain a dual-temperature water-hydrogen sulfide exchange
- Farther north, there is likely warehousing of chemicals and
storage of drums.
- We originally believed that there were three cooling towers
in the western portion of the site. Based on a re-analysis, the
three objects appear to be tanks with stirrers, possibly used
to pre-treat or purify water.
- Based on a comparison to heavy water plants in other countries,
Pakistan's heavy water plant has an estimated production capacity
of 50-100 tonnes* of heavy water per year. This capacity is more
than sufficient to meet the heavy water requirements of the nearby
* A tonne is a metric ton, equivalent to 1000 kilograms or
To go to the analysis of the plutonium production reactor at
Khushab, click here.
To go to ISIS' South Asian assessments page, click here.
To go to ISIS' satellite imagery index, click here.
To go to Space Imaging's website for more on the IKONOS satellite,