How South Africa managed this feat holds several lessons for a world made edgy by the breakup of the Soviet Union, recent revelations about Iraq's secret nuclear-weapons program and North Korea's announcement that it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Ever since the creation of the South African Atomic Energy Board in 1949, its scientists worked to advance their country's uranium technology. Because the United States and Britain needed uranium for their atomic-weapons programs, they quietly cooperated with South Africa in its research and production. By 1970, South Africa had developed a secret, advanced uranium- enrichment process. As Pretoria pursued its commitment to apartheid and as the global community sought to ostracize the racist regime, South Africa secretly tried to acquire nuclear weapons from other countries. Its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty of 1968, which was designed to deny nuclear weapons to countries not yet in the 'club,' seemed to confirm its intentions. Another signal was received in 1979. An explosion off the South African coast, detected by a U.S. Reconnaissance satellite, had the telltale double flash of a nuclear detonation. Some observers suggested it was an Israeli device tested with South Africa's assistance. Collaborative efforts with Israel, in rocketry and projectile research, also hinted at nuclear applications. No one was quite sure what Pretoria would do with nuclear weapons, but it was apparent that the capability was there. With the considerable political changes there over the past three years, South Africa has taken steps to rejoin the international community. It signed the Non-proliferation Treaty in July 1991 and began limited cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Despite its open and cooperative demeanor toward the IAEA, there are discrepancies in South Africa's account of the amounts of fissionable material it claims to possess. Pretoria declines to discuss or to provide shipping records about its secret imports, presumably from China, of low-enriched uranium in the 1980s. Nor does it want to divulge the identities of suppliers of related equipment. The country also refuses requests that it turn over to the IAEA mechanical devices related to nuclear technology. Nonetheless, it is apparent that South Africa produced enough weapons-grade material to construct six to 12 warheads by the early 1980s. Book: How South Africa Built Six Atom Bombs and Then Abandoned Its Nuclear Weapons Program: Chart:Stock Correlation Matchups. The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Answer, by Henry Beam Piper This eBook is for the use of. From all over South America, from South Africa and. Six years ago. Were there no more since then? The skeptical attitude of the United States, which has offered to purchase and remove Pretoria's nuclear stockpile before the African National Congress takes power, is in contrast to that of IAEA officials, who seem more trusting and are inclined to attribute any discrepancies to poor management and bookkeeping. Critics are convinced that de Klerk's revelatory speech was less than complete and not entirely truthful. Under pressure, the president may be admitting to a nuclear weapons program just to discourage further investigations and demands. He told the country's parliament, for example, that the decision to build bombs had been taken in 1974, yet weapons research was started as early as the 1950s. Insiders say that the program cost at least 10 times the $250-300 million that de Klerk told parliament. South Africa probably possessed smaller nuclear devices, to be used in battlefield situations; some experts say South Africa devised nuclear 'backpack' bombs and 'smart bombs' able to fly to pinpointed targets. It has also developed sophisticated long-range ballistic artillery. De Klerk boasted that South Africa developed its nuclear capability without external assistance, but that is not true. Germany provided key technology for the pilot enrichment plant South Africa built in 1975, and the United States built South Africa's first research reactor and also trained its nuclear scientists. France and Israel helped too. There are several reasons for the United States to press South Africa for more details on its nuclear program. First, the record needs to be complete. Under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, all of a country's fissionable materials must be accounted for. Second, the world needs to find out exactly how South Africa was able to go nuclear at a time when it was an outcast state. Who among us collaborated with Pretoria and why? Third, the world needs to see the material evidence of South Africa's dismantling of its bombs. Why accept de Klerk's word for it? Until all bomb components and fissionable material are accounted for, any new South African government might be able to reactivate the program. Might an ANC government, for a price, provide weapons-grade uranium and technology to its old ally, Col. Moammar Gadhafi of Libya? Whatever the future holds, the desire expressed by many, including some ANC leaders, to keep Africa a nuclear-free zone should be honored. We need the whole story - the sooner the better.
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