Chagai-II
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Chagai-II is the codename assigned to the second atomic test conducted by Pakistan, carried out on 30 May 1998 in the
Kharan Desert The Kharan Desert ( ur, صحرائے خاران) is a sandy and mountainous desert situated in Balochistan province in south-western Pakistan.The desert covers an area of about 36,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest deserts in P ...
in Balochistan Province of Pakistan. ''Chagai-II'' took place two days after Pakistan's first successful
test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...
, '' Chagai-I'', which was carried out on 28 May 1998 in the Ras Koh area in Chagai District,
Balochistan, Pakistan Balochistan (; bal, بلۏچستان; ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southwestern region of the country, Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by land area but is the least populated one. It shares land ...
. The initial goals were to test the new designs of the weapon rather than studying the effects, and were different from the first tests in that they were primarily conducted by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), with the
Pakistan Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...
engineering formations having only a supporting role. The tests detonated implosion-type boosted-fission military-grade plutonium devices, contrary to the Chagai-I tests that were
weapons-grade uranium Weapons-grade nuclear material is any fissionable nuclear material that is pure enough to make a nuclear weapon or has properties that make it particularly suitable for nuclear weapons use. Plutonium and uranium in grades normally used in nucle ...
devices. The performance of these tests made it a total of six tests performed by Pakistan in May 1998.


Test preparations


Selection and planning

The
Kharan Desert The Kharan Desert ( ur, صحرائے خاران) is a sandy and mountainous desert situated in Balochistan province in south-western Pakistan.The desert covers an area of about 36,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest deserts in P ...
is a
sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Sandy (surname), a list of people *Sandy (singer), Brazilian singer and actress Sandy Leah Lima (born 1983) * (Sandy) ...
and mountainous desert, with very high temperatures. The region is characterised by very low rainfall, high summer temperature, high velocity winds, poor soils, very sparse vegetation and a low diversity of plant species; its average temperature are recorded in summer and in winter session (sources vary). Safety and security required an isolated, remote, and
inhabitant Domicile is relevant to an individual's "personal law," which includes the law that governs a person's status and their property. It is independent of a person's nationality. Although a domicile may change from time to time, a person has only one ...
area with
extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...
conditions to prevent any possible Radioactive Fallout. For this purpose, a
three-dimensional Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...
survey Survey may refer to: Statistics and human research * Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population * Survey (human research), including opinion polls Spatial measurement * Surveying, the techniq ...
was commenced by nuclear physicist Dr.
Ishfaq Ahmad Ishfaq Ahmad Khan (3 November 1930 – 18 January 2018) , was a Pakistani nuclear physicist, emeritus professor of high-energy physics at the National Centre for Physics, and former science advisor to the Government of Pakistan. A versatile ...
assisted by
seismologist Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
Dr. Ahsan Mubarak; it received final approval from
Munir Ahmad Munir Ahmad Kakar ( ps, منیر احمد کاکړ) (born 1 February 1996) is an Afghan cricketer. He made his international debut for the Afghanistan cricket team in March 2021. Domestic career He made his List A debut for Amo Region in the 2 ...
in 1976. Unlike the
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
mountains, the PAEC requirement was to find a suitable site in a desert region with almost no wildlife to prevent any kind of
mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...
, and to study blast effects of the weapons. The weapon-testing sites were suspected to be located at Kharan, in a desert valley between the
Ras Koh The Ras Koh Hills is a range of granite hills forming a southwestern part of the Sulaiman Mountain Range, in the Chagai and Kharan districts of Pakistan's Balochistan province. The word "Ras" means "gateway" and the word "Koh" means "mountai ...
region to the north and
Siahan Range The Siahan Range is a mountain range in the central part of Balochistan Province of southwestern Pakistan. The Siahan Range is primarily made up of limestone and sandstone and was formed when the north western Indian Plate collided with the Eura ...
to the south. Subsequently, the
Chagai Chagai may refer to: * Chagai District, a district in Balochistan, Pakistan * Chagai, Pakistan, the capital city of Chagai District * Chagai Hills, a mountainous region in the district *''Chagai-I'', the codename for Pakistan's first nuclear weapon ...
-
Ras Koh The Ras Koh Hills is a range of granite hills forming a southwestern part of the Sulaiman Mountain Range, in the Chagai and Kharan districts of Pakistan's Balochistan province. The word "Ras" means "gateway" and the word "Koh" means "mountai ...
-Kharan were cordoned off, becoming restricted entry zones closed to the public. After PAEC officials clearing with Prime minister
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the fourth ...
, the preparations and
logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
matters were given to the
Pakistan Armed Forces The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consist of three formally uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are ...
. A secretly coded telegram was sent from the Prime Minister's Secretariat to
V Corps 5th Corps, Fifth Corps, or V Corps may refer to: France * 5th Army Corps (France) * V Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * V Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army ...
Brigadier Muhammad Sarfraz. A helicopter, was arranged for the civilian scientists by Sarfraz. In 1977, Sarfraz was dispatched to the
Military Engineering Service The Pakistan Army (, ) is the Army, land service branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The roots of its modern existence trace back to the British Indian Army that ceased to exist following the partition of India, Partition of British India, wh ...
to commission engineering formations of the Pakistan military by General
Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
, the Chief of Army Staff. The PAEC officials readily agreed that the secondary tests would be scientific in nature with the armed forces playing the engineering roles. The Special Development Works (SDW), assisted by the Corps of Engineers, Pakistan Army Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (PEME), and
Frontier Works Organisation The Frontier Works Organization ( ur, )); abbreviated as FWO), is a military engineering organization, and one of the major science and technology commands of the Pakistan Army. Commissioned and established in 1966, the FWO includes active duty ...
(FWO), spearheaded the engineering of the potential sites. The military engineers were well aware of satellite detection, therefore the site at Kharan was constructed with extra cautions. The SDW built around 24 cold test sites, 46 short tunnels, and 35 underground accommodations for troops and command, control and monitoring facilities. The test site was and was L-shaped horizontal shafts. Extensive installations of diagnostic cables, motion sensors, and monitoring stations were established inside the test site. It took nearly 2–3 years for the SDW to prepare and preparations were completed in 1980, before Pakistan acquired the capability to physically develop an atomic bomb. After posting at the
General Headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...
, Sarfraz transferred the work to Lieutenant-General
Zahid Ali Akbar Lieutenant General Zahid Ali Akbar ( ur, ; b. 1933) , is a former engineering officer in the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers, who oversaw the civil construction of the Army GHQ in Rawalpindi, and later directing the Engineering Research Lab ...
, the Engineer-in-Chief of the
Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers "The Moving Spirit" , colors = , colors_label = Colours , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = , ...
. The modernisation of the tests labs were undertaken by the FWO; the FWO uncredited work in the construction of the weapon-testings labs in Kharan Desert, and had supervised the entire construction on the sites along with the SDW. Final preparations were overseen by then-Lieutenant-Colonel
Zulfikar Ali Khan Major Nawab Sayyid Zulfikar Ali Khan Bahadur (11 March 1934 – 5 April 1992) was an Indian politician and an Indian army officer who ruled as Titular Nawab of Rampur from 1982 to 1992, succeeding his elder brother Murtaza Ali Khan Bahadur ...
and PAEC chairman
Munir Ahmad Munir Ahmad Kakar ( ps, منیر احمد کاکړ) (born 1 February 1996) is an Afghan cricketer. He made his international debut for the Afghanistan cricket team in March 2021. Domestic career He made his List A debut for Amo Region in the 2 ...
, assisted by Dr.
Ishfaq Ahmad Ishfaq Ahmad Khan (3 November 1930 – 18 January 2018) , was a Pakistani nuclear physicist, emeritus professor of high-energy physics at the National Centre for Physics, and former science advisor to the Government of Pakistan. A versatile ...
, the Member (Technical) of PAEC.


Test and blast yields

The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) teams of scientists and engineers arrived at the site led by Dr.
Samar Mubarakmand Dr. Samar Mubarakmand (Urdu: ; b. 17 September 1942; ), is a Pakistani nuclear physicist known for his research in gamma spectroscopy and experimental development of the linear accelerator. He came to public attention as the director of the t ...
, a
nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...
. The tests were conducted on 30 May 1998 at 13:10  hrs (1:10 pm) ( PKT). The
atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
was small in size but very efficient and produced a very powerful
shock wave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a med ...
and blast yield. The devices were boosted fission weapons using military-grade plutonium, yielding 60.1% of the first tests performed two days earlier. The Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) calculated that the blast yield was 20  kt of
TNT equivalent TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a m ...
. Although the
American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
estimated the yield at based on data received by their computer, Dr.
Abdul Qadeer Khan Abdul Qadeer Khan, (; ur, ; 1 April 1936 – 10 October 2021), known as A. Q. Khan, was a Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer. He was a key figure in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and is colloquially known as the ...
confirmed the TPG blast calculations in an interview in 1998. A crater now takes the place of what used to be a small hillock in the rolling desert, marking the ground zero of the nuclear test. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (or PAEC) had tested one or more plutonium nuclear devices, and the results and data of the devices were successful as was expected by the Pakistan's mathematicians and seismologists.


Test teams


Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission

*
Samar Mubarakmand Dr. Samar Mubarakmand (Urdu: ; b. 17 September 1942; ), is a Pakistani nuclear physicist known for his research in gamma spectroscopy and experimental development of the linear accelerator. He came to public attention as the director of the t ...
, Member (Technical) at PAEC. *
Hafeez Qureshi Muhammad Hafeez Qureshi (Urdu: محمد حفيظ قريشى; ) (28 January 1930 – 11 August 2007), Sitara-e-Imtiaz, SI, Hilal-i-Imtiaz, HI, known as Hafeez Qureshi, was a Pakistani nuclear scientist and a mechanical engineer, known for his cla ...
, Directorate of Technical Development (DTD) *Irfan Burney, Director of Directorate of Technical Procurement (DTP). *Tariq Salija, Director of the Radiation and Istope Applications Division (RIAD). *Muhammad Jameel, Director of Directorate of Science and Engineering Services (DSES) *Muhammad Arshad, the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). *
Asghar Qadir Asghar Qadir ( ur, اصغر قادر born 23 July 1946) ''HI'', ''SI'', ''FPAS'', is a Pakistani mathematician and a prominent cosmologist, specialised in mathematical physics and physical cosmology. He is considered one of the top mathemati ...
, director, Theoretical Physics Group


Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers

*
Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Zulfikar Ali Khan Engineer-in-Chief of the
System A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...
and Combat Engineering Division of the
Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers "The Moving Spirit" , colors = , colors_label = Colours , march = , mascot = , equipment = , equipment_label = , ...


See also

* Chagai-I


References

* * *


External links

* * * {{coord missing, Balochistan, Pakistan 1998 in military history 1998 in Pakistan Kharan District Code names Project-706 Nuclear history of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif administration History of science and technology in Pakistan Pakistani nuclear weapons testing Underground nuclear weapons testing 1998 in science May 1998 events in Asia