On March 24, 1993, South African President Declerk revealed a message in parliament that South Africa had built an atomic bomb similar to that used by the U.S. military in Hiroshima. "South Africa's decision to develop nuclear weapons was made by his predecessors, John Walter and Botha, and only a handful of ministers knew about the secret 15-year nuclear development programme," de Klerk said. He added that "after coming to power in 1989, he terminated the nuclear weapons program and decided to destroy all six made and the seventh atomic bomb to be built." ”
After the news was announced, the world was shocked. People are amazed that such a country, which has an underdeveloped economy, a very acute internal ethnic contradiction and a political instability, has evaded the surveillance of many countries and relevant international organizations and quietly made so many atomic bombs. At the same time, one wonders: How did South Africa become a nuclear power?
-- Starting from the development of national nuclear resources and the development of the civilian nuclear industry
In the early 1940s, South Africa, then a British colony, began developing uranium ore. South Africa's uranium resources are very rich and very valuable. It is estimated that its uranium resources are about 460,000 tons, accounting for 14% of the uranium resources of the Western world. In 1983, its annual uranium production was 6,094 tons, second only to Canada and the United States, ranking third in the world. South Africa's uranium ore is mostly mixed with gold ore, and a small part is mixed with copper, which is actually a by-product of gold and copper ore. Gold and copper are metals of great mining value, and uranium is mined at the same time as gold and copper, which is low cost and high value.
Initially, gold and uranium were mined simultaneously in the Witwatersland goldfield. There are approximately 71-80 million tonnes of gold ore in the mine. Gold ore contains about 0.2-2 pounds of uranium octoxide per ton. Of the mine's tailings, it is estimated that about 40,000 tons of uranium octoxide; The content of uranium octoxide averages 0.1% per tonne of tailings clay. Before 1971, uranium ore from South Africa was basically produced in the mine, with a total of 56,746 tons. After 1971, South Africa mined copper and its by-product uranium from the Parabola copper mine, producing a total of 1960 tons of uranium octoxide with an average ore grade of 0.0035%.
It was also in the early 1940s that Research began on the extraction of uranium from gold ores in South Africa. In 1945, the first plant for extracting uranium from immersion solutions was completed. In 1948, South Africa jointly developed nuclear resources with the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries, and the United States and Britain Joint Development Agency provided funds and technology to South Africa, and 17 factories for the separation, refining and processing of uranium ore were established on the spot. These plants, both extracted from acid solutions and extracted by ion exchange, have a processing capacity of 7900 tons of uranium ore per year. In 1988, only half of these plants were in operation, with an annual output of 3,800 tons, only 49% of their production capacity.
Uranium produced in South Africa, in addition to meeting the needs of domestic use, is mainly used for export. In the 1950s and 1960s, South Africa exported $1.26 billion worth of natural uranium to the United States and the United Kingdom. South Africa's uranium exports have been going on for more than 40 years, with Western European countries being the main targets of uranium exports, accounting for about 76 per cent and Japan about 10 per cent. South Africa's large exports of uranium resources make it frequent to trade or exchange uranium resources and uranium technology with other countries and regions.
South Africa tested nuclear weapons similar to the Hiroshima atomic bomb in its early years
With the help of developed countries in the West (mainly the United States, Britain, France and Germany), South Africa began to prepare nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants in the 1950s. In 1957, a cooperation agreement was signed with the United States and the United Kingdom, in which the United States would provide a 20-megawatt nuclear reactor to South Africa and the United Kingdom would provide nuclear fuel containing 93% uranium. Construction began in 1961, reached a critical state in 1965, and was officially put into operation in 1967.
Through the construction and operation of nuclear reactors, South Africa has accumulated valuable experience in the development of the nuclear industry and trained its own nuclear experts. Between 1957 and 1977 alone, the United States sent a total of 155 nuclear experts to South Africa, and South Africa sent 90 scientists to the United States to study. In the 1960s, in cooperation with France and Germany, the development and improvement of the nuclear industry and nuclear technology was further promoted (from the end of the 60s to 1985, France helped South Africa build three nuclear power plants and start operations).
In order to meet the needs of the development of nuclear power plants, South Africa began to study the enrichment technology of uranium in 1961. At the end of the 1960s, Germany was of great help to the study of uranium enrichment in South Africa. A uranium enrichment plant was built in Wallindaba in 1971, which began operation in 1974 and production began in March 1977, with a production capacity of about 60 tons of separation power/year. In 1981, South Africa was able to enrich itself with high and low enriched uranium in various levels for its own use and large exports. In 1983, research began on the method of separating enriched uranium with laser isotopes, and the prototype was completed in 1993, and it is expected that a plant for enriching uranium with lasers can be built by 1997. The technology to enrich uranium was mastered by South Africa, marking that it was able to enrich the nuclear charge needed to produce a nuclear bomb on its own.
Vaschopu military test site in the Kalahari Desert
Second, in the 1970s, we embarked on the road of developing nuclear weapons
Beginning in the 1970s, South Africa embarked on the path of developing nuclear weapons. According to officials of the South African Ordnance Corporation, in March 1971, South African Minister of Mines Dwight ordered the study of the "peaceful nuclear explosion", and in 1974 the South African government approved the "peaceful nuclear explosion plan" and decided to develop a limited deterrent. Thus began the simultaneous development of nuclear weapons and the construction of nuclear test sites.
The "Peaceful Nuclear Explosive Device" was initially developed by atomic energy corporation, but due to slow progress, it was replaced in 1978 by the Ordnance Corporation, which set up a special facility for the development of nuclear weapons in Advigla. In 1982, Advillah developed a new nuclear explosive device, and by 1989, six nuclear explosive devices had been stored in its basement.
South Africa began preparations for nuclear tests at the same time as it developed nuclear weapons. In 1974, it began construction of an underground nuclear test site in the Kalahari Desert, and after about three years, two shafts with a diameter of about 1 meter and a depth of 180-200 meters were built (one of which was stopped halfway due to poor geological conditions). In 1978, South Africa planned to test the second nuclear explosive device it had developed at the nuclear test site, but due to pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union, the test was cancelled and the shaft was closed.
Adelascic Central Laboratory
In November 1979, the United States and the Soviet Union discovered a "double flash" signal peculiar to a nuclear explosion over Prince Edward Island, a south-easterly region of South Africa. Seymour Hersh's 1991 book asserts that South Africa and Israel collaborated on the nuclear test, which, based on "double flash" signals, presumed to have a nuclear explosion power equivalent to 2.5-3.0 kilotons of TNT equivalent. Gray Millhollin, director of the U.S. Nuclear Arms Program in Wisconsin, pointed out that the possibility of Cooperation between South Africa and Israel cannot be ruled out.
Reasons for the development and destruction of nuclear weapons
South Africa's development of the atomic bomb has its historical reasons and social background. As we all know, apartheid has long been practised in South Africa in the past. Namibia in northern South Africa was entrusted by South Africa and was subsequently illegally annexed by South Africa, and the Namibian people have been fighting for national independence. Angola, north of Namibia, has long been engaged in a war of national liberation, and Cuba has also intervened in Angola's internal struggles.
The former white ruling clique in South Africa felt that they were extremely isolated in southern Africa and feared that the expansion of the Warsaw Pact would endanger its rule, so it tried to help it consolidate its colonial rule by developing nuclear weapons. Why did South Africa take the initiative to declare nuclear weapons and eliminate them?
There was no explanation for the white ruling clique at the time. Judging from the analysis of international public opinion, there are two main reasons:
First, the situation at home and abroad has changed. Judging from the international situation, the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba withdrew its troops from Angola, and the internal struggle in Angola tended to ease. The domestic situation also made the white ruling clique feel that it was no longer possible to fully implement white colonial rule over blacks. The white ruling clique, led by De Klerk, was ready to compromise with black leaders such as Mandela to form a coalition government. After the formation of a coalition government, the control of nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of blacks, which neither the white ruling group nor the United States wants to see. Measures were therefore taken to eliminate nuclear weapons on their own initiative before the formation of a coalition Government.
Second, under pressure from the United States, South Africa announced its recognition of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in July 1991 and concluded a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency in September, which entered into force immediately. Upon joining the organization, it is obliged to provide the organization with information on its nuclear information and to allow it to verify its nuclear situation. As a result, south Africa's development of nuclear weapons can no longer be kept secret.
According to official South African sources, its nuclear weapons are low-level, simple and crude. As De Klerk said: "South Africa's nuclear device is a simple nuclear fission weapon, not a complex and powerful thermonuclear weapon." "But from unofficial sources, its nuclear weapons have basically reached a modern level.
Adwina's stored nuclear warhead shell
For example, a joint statement issued by the South African Atomic Energy and Ordnance Corporation on 26 March 1993 revealed that south African nuclear installations are designed with a gunstyle design, weigh about 1 ton, have a diameter of 650 mm, and are 1.8 meters long, and are loaded with 40-50 kg of weapons-grade uranium or 50-60 kg of 235 uranium, with a content of about 90%, with an estimated power of 10-18 kilotons of TNT. Judging from the Adhevila nuclear development capability, its research and development capability has also reached a modern level.
According to Peter Hownan and Steve McQuenan, since South Africa already possesses missile warheads and nuclear artillery shells, its nuclear weapons are at least miniaturized and remotely controlled and capable of modernization.
It can be said that South Africa is a country with nuclear resources, nuclear technology, nuclear facilities, nuclear research and development talents and institutions, and a nuclear industry system compatible with the military and the people. There are enough forces to implement nuclear development programs at any time, enter the "nuclear club" and become a nuclear state.