NUCLEAR RADIATION EDUCATION AND NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN PAKISTAN

By N. M. BUTT

Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, P.O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

   Pakistan was created in August 1947 and the Nuclear Radiation Education started with the appointment of Prof. R. M. Chaudhri, as the Head of the Physics Department at the Government College, Lahore in 1948. Professor Chaudhri had done his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in the Cavendish Laboratory of Professor Lord Rutherford. He worked in the Laboratory in late 20’s and early 30’s for his Ph.D. under Prof. M. O. Oliphant and Prof. Rutherford. During his Ph.D. in 1932 studies he had an extensive experience of the nuclear techniques developed at the Cavendish Laboratory by the famous physicists like J. J. Thomson, Chadwick, Rutherford, Geiger, Oliphant etc.

   Prof. Chaudhri, an experimental physicist, experienced in the discharge of electricity through gases and studying the atomic physics through the discharge tube systems, set up the famous High Tension and Nuclear Research Laboratory at the Government College and in 1954 installed there the famous 1.2 MeV Cockcroft - Walton accelerator for nuclear reaction studies. It was a modern nuclear accelerator at the time and the best one in the region.

    In addition to the study of nuclear reactions through the accelerated protons upto 1.2 MeV from this machine, the whole variety of nuclear physics experiments were set up by his M.Sc. (Physics) research students. This included the fabrication of Geiger Counters, gas - proportional radiation detectors, b-Counters and BF₃ neutron detectors etc. As a requirement of one year research the M.Sc. students fabricated these various types of detectors. Prof. Chaudhri lectured nuclear physics one year course to the M.Sc. students in addition to supervising the final year experimental theses.

    My own M.Sc. thesis was on the energy spectrum of alpha - particles emitted in the nuclear reaction of protons bombarded on lithium nuclii. This was the first nuclear reaction studies with the Cockcroft - Walton accelerator after its installation. Students were trained in one year about the vacuum technology, glass blowing, mechanical workshop techniques, the fabrication of electronic circuits for nuclear pulse counting systems, coincident units for the cosmic radiation research at this laboratory, atomic sputtering techniques, the techniques of fabrication of nuclear detectors for alpha, beta, gamma and neutron radiation etc. For detection of gamma - radiation, the NaI and CsI scintillation detectors were used.

    Over the years this laboratory produced a number of students who had a strong base in experimental nuclear techniques and who went abroad to Europe and USA for further higher studies for Ph.D. In the mid 50’s the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) was instituted and the majority of these nuclear trained students of Professor Chaudhri coming out from this laboratory were employed by the PAEC in early 60’s by the then Chairman of PAEC, Dr. I. H. Usmani. With the advice of Prof. A. Salam, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, Dr. Usmani planned the further training of these students in a variety of areas pertaining to nuclear radiation handling and research and in all important specialities for Nuclear Science and Engineering. This human resource formed the back bone of the development of the Nuclear Science and Technology in Pakistan in the form of several independent centres. This included the Nuclear Medical Centres, Nuclear Agriculture Centres, the Nuclear Uranium Exploration Centres, Nuclear Power Reactors and the classified programme of successful Nuclear Defense of Pakistan, all under the management of PAEC.

   The pivotal role in higher nuclear and radiation research was played by Pakistan’s premier and the mother Institute PINSTECH (the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology) at Islamabad of which I worked as the Director General before retiring in 1996 from this assignment. PINSTECH had over 400 professionals and a total of over 2000 employees, with 14 technical department covering all aspects of nuclear science and technology including a Centre for Nuclear Studies for Higher Education in Nuclear S & T (established in 1968). This Centre is now a separate University with the name of Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) and is independent of PINSTECH. The nuclear radiation and nuclear physics training at other universities in Pakistan was however not significant, particularly with regard to nuclear research and specialized training.

    Some discussion of the nuclear education given at the Government College, Lahore and the  radiation research and utilisation in Pakistan, quite a bit of it involving my own self for several decades, will be made in this paper. The paper will discuss the chronology of nuclear science and technology in Pakistan including the important uses of the nuclear radiation for public uses.

INTRODUCTION

    The Nuclear History of Pakistan is a unique one. In an ocean of ignorance, with about 30% literacy in Pakistan, with poor standard of living, with increasing population and problems of economic conditions, with a poor status of precision machinery and a lame high technology in general etc., still the country became a declared nuclear power with a very fine set of Nuclear Laboratories in the country ranging from the exploration of indigenous Uranium, Fabrication of the natural Uranium Fuel which is being used in the 137 MW (electric) Candu Reactor operating in the city of Karachi for the last 30 years, to Uranium Enrichment Laboratories, Agricultural Nuclear Laboratories, twelve Nuclear Medical Centres catering for about 300,000 patients annually, a 300 MW light water cooled Power Reactor at Chashma and two Research Reactors (a 10MW swimming Pool Reactor and a Zero Power Reactor) at the multidisciplinary research institute PINSTECH, Islamabad with all the facilities of Nuclear Radiation use and safe handling.

   The author did his M.Sc. with experimental specialization in the Nuclear Physics in 1957 under the “Nuclear Father of Pakistan”, Prof. Rafi M. Chaudhri, the Head of the Department of Physics at country’s top educational institution, the Government College, Lahore. Prof. Chaudhri taught him the nuclear physics and also supervised the M.Sc. thesis in experimental nuclear physics using 1.2 MeV Cockcrof-Walton Nuclear Accelerator installed at the College. The thesis was on the nuclear - reactions when the protons from this accelerator strike the nuclear target of Lithium produce a nuclear reaction, breaking the nucleus of Lithium. Prof. Chaudhri had done his Ph.D. in 1932 in the laboratory of “Worlds Nuclear Father” Prof. Lord Rutherford.

   The author did his Ph.D. thesis (1961-65) on crystalline materials using experimental nuclear techniques using the Mossbauer effect under the supervision of famous nuclear scientist Prof. P. B. Moon, FRS. Head of the Physics at the University of Birmingham in UK. Prof. Moon earlier was an important member of the U.K.’s team of the Manhattan Project and was on sight for measuring nuclear radiation emitted during the explosion of USA’s first Atomic Bomb at Almogordo, New Mexico. Prof. Moon also had done his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in the nuclear laboratory of Lord Rutherford, as a contemporary of Prof. R. M. Chaudhri. The author passed also one year course in nuclear physics from Prof. W. E. Burcham, FRS, the famous Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Birmingham University and who wrote a well known globally used text book on nuclear physics. Prof. Burcham was also a student of Rutherford.

   During the same period the author learned the course on the Theory of Solids from Prof. R. E. Peierls, FRS, a leading member in the Manhattan Project and who was Head of the implosion device being developed under this project in early 40’s. Thus at Birmingham University during his studies for Ph.D. (1961-65) the author was lucky to be a student of three FRS, the world known nuclear professors whose names form part of the nuclear history of the world. Later the author had a rich and full interaction with a large number of nuclear and material scientists of over 25 countries during his lectures and seminars at the laboratories of these countries of the East and the West.

   The author was therefore fortunate to spend a span of his life full of nuclear experience within Pakistan and abroad.

   In writing the present brief article, he is therefore in a pleasant situation to record nuclear education and the development of Nuclear Science and Technology in Pakistan, a large part from his personal life devoted to the Nuclear development of Pakistan. The author spent all his active research life of about 30 years at the country’s premier nuclear research Institute, PINSTECH, the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology in Islamabad. Passing through various stages of the ladder in the hierarchy of PINSTECH, he retired as Chief Scientist/Director General of this famous Institute of Pakistan which has a major and prominent share, by providing the necessary nuclear human resource and other help, in making Pakistan nuclear.

NUCLEAR STUDENTS OF PAKISTAN

    The birth of nuclear science in Pakistan took place at the Physics Department of Government College, Lahore in 1948 when Prof. R. M. Chaudhri migrated from India to Pakistan, a year after Pakistan was created.

    He was Professor of Physics at the Muslim University of Aligarh (former British India), now in India. Prof. R. M. Chaudhri migrated to Pakistan at the instance of letters of Prof. Mark Oliphant, Head of the Physics Department at the Birmingham University, UK (in the year 1947) written to Mr. M. A. Jinnah the first Governor General of Pakistan since the creation of Pakistan on 14th August, 1947. Prof. Oliphant, who was a senior contemporary researcher (and a sort of supervisor) of Prof. Chaudhri in Rutherford’s Laboratory, persuaded Mr. Jinnah to take  Prof. R. M. Chaudhri in Pakistan to get benefits of nuclear studies of such an experienced Muslim Scientist who desired to serve Pakistan. Both Oliphant and Rutherford had high opinions of Prof. Chaudhri’s scientific research. Mr. Jinnah arranged the service of Prof. Chaudhri at the Pakistan’s best educational institution, the Government College, Lahore offering him the best academic job in physics and at the salary of the maximum of the prevailing government pay-scales, a due honour paid to an educationist. Prof. Chaudhri with his dedication, devotion and hard work started establishing the nuclear laboratories at this institution in Lahore and soon, with in the next few years was able to get a nuclear accelerator, the 1.2 MeV Cockcroft Walton-Accelerator, a modern nuclear accelerator of the time and probably the best in Asia.                 

   Through the nuclear experiments allocated as M.Sc. theses to his students, Prof. Chaudhri trained a large number of students in the nuclear field during the decades of 50’s - 60’s. These students obtained the first hand experience of essential nuclear techniques of radiation detection and also fabricating the nuclear equipment like nuclear radiation detectors, coincident circuits, ion sources, research on upto-date and the current nuclear topics of the time. Some of the theses supervised by him over the years are listed [Table-1].

Table-1: SOME ATOMIC AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS AS M.Sc. THESES SUPERVISED BY PROF. R. M. CHAUDHRI
 

These students were also given practical training in vacuum technology, glass blowing and in the mechanical and electronic workshops. These practical techniques were indeed very useful aspects for higher education and research in nuclear science and technology. These students after completing further advanced nuclear studies abroad mostly for their Ph.Ds and working for some years at home played a leading role in making Pakistan a nuclear country.

   Here it is very important to emphasise that the devotion and the personality of Prof. Chaudhri had a great influence on his students and which inspired them to take up nuclear science, particularly the experimental nuclear science, as a later career. He took keen interest in imparting the technical skills to them with frequent interaction and discussions with them. Most often he used to work with them on the bench. Coupled with this dedication was his constant eye on the current research in nuclear physics and was most upto-date with the current developments in the field although nowhere else in Pakistan the research in atomic and nuclear physics was being conducted. This  he did not do only through the study of current journals but also by remaining in touch through regular personal correspondence with his peers and contemporary scientists across the world, particularly in the UK. Professor Chaudhri retired in 1963 from the Physics Department and the tradition of nuclear research was carried on by his student Prof. Tahir Hussain at this department who had earlier studies at the University of Oxford, UK for his Ph.D. in Experimental Nuclear Physics. There the nuclear radiation students were continued being produced from this department, so to say as second generation students of Prof. Chaudhri.

    Thus the seriousness of research in atomic and nuclear physics of international high quality became hall-mark of the Physics Department of the Government College, Lahore particularly in 50’s and 60’s and many of these students thus were able to play a seminal role in the later years of nuclear development in Pakistan.

HIGHER NUCLEAR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

    During the decade of 60’s an important part was played by Dr. I. H. Usmani who was the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC)  from 1960 to 1972, a per