South Africa/Nuclear weapons
David Albright in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Chris McGreal in The Guardian have claimed that South Africa's nuclear weapons were developed in the 1970s and 1980s in co-operation with Israel.[1][2][3] Such co-operation is in clear breach of United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 of 4 November 1977 which introduced a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa, and required all states to refrain from "any co-operation with South Africa in the manufacture and development of nuclear weapons".[4]
According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, in 1977 Israel traded 30 grams of tritium for 50 tonnes of Namibian uranium and in the mid-1980s assisted with the development of the RSA-3 and RSA-4 ballistic missiles, which are similar to Israeli Shavit and Jericho missiles.[5] Also in 1977, according to the Jerusalem Post, South Africa signed a pact with Israel that included the transfer of military technology and the manufacture of at least six nuclear bombs.[6]
David Albright reported that although President P W Botha limited the number of South Africa's nuclear weapons to seven in 1985, it was estimated that the seven gun-type devices had enough Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) for 14 implosion weapons.[7]
Vela Incident
In September 1979 a US Vela satellite detected a double flash over the Indian Ocean that was suspected, but never confirmed to be a nuclear test, despite extensive air sampling by Boeing WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft of the United States Air Force. If the Vela Incident was a nuclear test, South Africa is one of the countries, possibly in collaboration with Israel, that is suspected of carrying it out. No official confirmation of its being a nuclear test has been made by South Africa, and expert agencies have disagreed on their assessments. In 1997, South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad stated that South Africa had conducted a test, but later retracted his statement as being a report of rumours.[8]
In February 1994 Commodore Dieter Gerhardt, former commander of South Africa's Simon's Town naval base who was later convicted of spying for the USSR, was reported to have said:
| “ | Although I was not directly involved in planning or carrying out the operation, I learned unofficially that the flash was produced by an Israeli-South African test code-named Operation Phoenix. The explosion was clean and was not supposed to be detected. But they were not as smart as they thought, and the weather changed - so the Americans were able to pick it up.[9][10] | ” |
In 2000, Gerhardt claimed that Israel agreed in 1974 to arm eight Jericho II missiles with "special warheads" for South Africa.[11]
In 2010, The Guardian released South African government documents that it alleged confirmed the existence of Israel's nuclear arsenal, and were associated with an Israeli offer to sell South Africa nuclear weapons in 1975.[12][13] Israel categorically denied these allegations and said that the documents do not indicate any offer for a sale of nuclear weapons. Israeli President Shimon Peres said that The Guardian article was based on "selective interpretation... and not on concrete facts."[14]
Avner Cohen, author of Israel and the Bomb and The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb, said:
- "Nothing in the documents suggests there was an actual offer by Israel to sell nuclear weapons to the regime in Pretoria."[15]
Dismantling
South African forces feared the threat of a "domino effect" in favour of communism, represented in southern Africa by Cuban proxy forces in Angola and threatening Namibia. In 1988 South Africa signed the Tripartite Accord with Cuba and Angola, which led to the withdrawal of South African and Cuban troops from Angola and independence for Namibia. The pre-emptive elimination of nuclear weapons was expected to make a significant contribution toward regional stability and peace, and also to help restore South Africa's credibility in regional and international politics.
In 1993, President F W de Klerk announced that South Africa's nuclear weapons programme had ended in 1989. All of the bombs were said to have been dismantled, and South Africa acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons when South African Ambassador to the United States Harry Schwarz signed the treaty in 1991. On 19 August 1994, after completing its inspection, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that one partially completed and six fully completed nuclear weapons had been dismantled. As a result, the IAEA was satisfied that South Africa's nuclear programme had been converted to peaceful applications. Following this, South Africa joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as a full member on 5 April 1995. South Africa played a leading role in the establishment of the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (also referred to as the Treaty of Pelindaba) in 1996, becoming one of the first members in 1997. South Africa also signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996 and ratified it in 1999.
The Treaty of Pelindaba came into effect on 15 July 2009 once it had been ratified by 28 countries.[16] This treaty requires that parties will not engage in the research, development, manufacture, stockpiling acquisition, testing, possession, control or stationing of nuclear explosive devices in the territory of parties to the treaty and the dumping of radioactive wastes in the African zone by treaty parties. The African Commission on Nuclear Energy, in order to verify compliance with the treaty, was established and headquartered in South Africa.[17]
| Year | Activity |
|---|---|
| 1950s and 1960s | Scientific work on the feasibility of peaceful nuclear explosives and support to nuclear power production efforts |
| 1969 | Atomic Energy Board forms group to evaluate technical and economic aspects of nuclear explosives |
| 1970 | Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) releases report identifying uses for nuclear explosives |
| 1971 | R&D approval granted for "peaceful use of nuclear explosives" |
| 1973 | AEC prioritises work on a Gun-type fission weapon |
| 1974 | Work on a nuclear device and the Vastrap test site are authorised |
| 1977 | AEC completes bomb assembly for "cold" test |
| 1978 | First Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) produced; Armscor assumes control of weapons programme |
| 1979 | Vela Incident; First bomb with HEU core produced by AEC |
| 1982 | First deliverable bomb built; work on weapons safety |
| 1985 | Three-phase nuclear strategy reviewed |
| 1987 | First production bomb built; seven produced, with an eighth under construction |
| 1988 | Armscor prepares Vastrap for a nuclear test |
| 1989 | Nuclear weapons dismantled |
| 1991 | Accedes to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) |
References
- ↑
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{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ Unknown author. "RSA Nuclear Weapons Program". Federation of American Scientists.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ "UNSCR 418 of 4 November 1977: States should refrain from "any co-operation with South Africa in the manufacture and development of nuclear weapons"". United Nations. Retrieved 15 May 2011.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ "South Africa: Missile". Nuclear Threat Initiative. November 2011.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ "South Africa's Secret Nuclear Weapons"
- ↑ "Aziz Pahad's statement and retraction discussed here". Nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 15 May 2011.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ South Africa and the affordable bomb, David Albright, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Jul 1994, pp 37.
- ↑ Proliferation: A flash from the past David Albright, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Nov 1997, pp. 15
- ↑ "Tracking Nuclear Proliferation". PBS Newshour. 2 May 2005.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑
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{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ disarmament.un.org - Pelindaba Treaty - View chronological order by deposit
- ↑ "African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty". Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of South Africa. Retrieved 2006-07-28.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
- ↑ Roy E. Horton, USAF Institute for National Security Studies (1999). Out of (South) Africa: Pretoria's Nuclear Weapons Experience. Dianne Publishing. p. 17.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
