|
|
| Fig. 1: Pelindaba Nuclear Power Plant was the site of South Africa's first Nuclear Reactor, SAFARI-1. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
From 1948 to the mid-1990s the South African government upheld a race-based segregation system, Apartheid that disenfranchised and disempowered racial minorities. Apartheid was supported by the ruling political party, the National Party (NP). It was under the leadership of the NP that South Africas Nuclear Weapons program was both created and dismantled, making South Africa the first example of state to successfully build and then dismantle. [1]
In 1957, the Apartheid government signed a 50 year deal with the U.S.-sanctioned Atoms for Peace project. [2] Some suggest that Americas willingness to grant nuclear material to South Africa was due in part to gain access, via export, to the vast amount of raw uranium present in South Africa. [3] The partnership allowed the acquisition of South Africa's first nuclear reactor that was located in Pelindaba, shown in Fig. 1. Pelindaba is South Africas first nuclear energy research center located in Hartbeespoort in the North West Province. The Atoms for Peace program also permitted the storage and use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel. [3]
In the early 1970s, Nuclear weapons research began, spearheaded by the South African Atomic Energy Corporation. The narrative around this research centered on the development of peaceful nuclear explosives (PNEs) for the mining industry. [2] There are disputing reports about when the shift changed from PNEs to nuclear weapons but official records acknowledge the desire to acquire nuclear weapons first in 1977 and 1778. [4] By the 1980s South Africa had built 6 "Hiroshima type bombs" [4] and was half-way through completing the seventh
In the early 1990s, as the soon-to-be democratically elected party, the African National Congress (ANC) gained local and global support. Global isolation through sanctions and reprimand as well as concerns about a change in power prompted the ruling party to disband its nuclear arsenal. In 1991, South Africa signed the Non- Proliferation Treaty thus allowing global powers to conduct searches to ensure that nuclear weapons had been safely destroyed. [2]
On March 24th, 1993, then-president F.W. de Klerk announced that the government had already dismantled its nuclear weapons programs and all weapons. [2] Many documents were destroyed and a veil of secrecy hung over the top-secret program thus little is known about the extent of the nuclear weapons program and its operations. [2]
The decision to disband a nuclear weapons program should be applauded but evaluated with healthy skepticism. However, it is important that we recognize that it was international pressure, political isolation and racist fears of nuclear weapons in the hands of a non-white majority that ultimately informed this decision.
© Isi Umunna. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] P. Liberman, "The Rise and Fall of the South African Bomb," Int. Security 26, No. 2, 45 (2001).
[2] Z. Masiza, "A Chronology of South Africa's Nuclear Program," Nonproliferation Review 1, No. 1, 35 (Fall 1993).
[3] J. Hoagl, "S. Africa, With U.S. Aid, Near A-Bomb," Washington Post, 16 Feb 77.
[4] V. Harris, S. Hatang, and P. Liberman, "Unveiling South Africa's Nuclear Past," J. South. Afr. Stud. 30, 457 (2004).
.jpg){kind=link}