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  1. #1
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    Default Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    “South Africa's apartheid government built nuclear weapons in the 1970's because they were worried about Soviet expansion into Africa. In the 90's, President F W de Klerk dismantled them. Why did South Africa get rid of its nuclear weapons?”


  2. #2
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    Default Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    Good short doccie.

    Some answers they raise.

    Program was run nationwide, but mostly around Stellenbosch, Houwtec and Pelindaba.

    South Africa used large part if not most of the highly enriched uranium up to 2010 at Pelindaba to become the world leader in the production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for medical use.

    Also had a ICBM program going in the 80's under the guise of a satellite program, successfully developed and tested a 2 stage rocket with the final 3 stage rocket very far along in the development stage but program to miniaturize the nuclear program never came of the ground.

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    Default Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    AFAIK one of the ICBMs is at the Swartkopz AFB in the museum.
    if you ask nicely you can go see the Houwtec facility ( and the cleanrooms )


    When we went there it felt like walking back in time going into a lab that looked like they decided to get up, put a plastic sheet over their desks and left it all as it was ( CRT screens, yellowing -beige keyboards, all covered in a plastic drop sheet )

    had a lecturer in Stellenbosch who used to work with the program in reactor research ( Nuclear engineering ) - he has a thing for coal powered trucks.. interesting guy.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    Yeah, as far as I know, six nukes were produced. Five were dismantled. The sixth? Vela incident comes to mind....

  5. #5

    Default Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    Quote Originally Posted by mic View Post
    Yeah, as far as I know, six nukes were produced. Five were dismantled. The sixth? Vela incident comes to mind....
    I spent an evening around a campfie with an engineer that worked on the program. Interesting ...



    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by HvR View Post
    Good short doccie.

    Some answers they raise.

    Program was run nationwide, but mostly around Stellenbosch, Houwtec and Pelindaba.

    South Africa used large part if not most of the highly enriched uranium up to 2010 at Pelindaba to become the world leader in the production of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) for medical use.

    Also had a ICBM program going in the 80's under the guise of a satellite program, successfully developed and tested a 2 stage rocket with the final 3 stage rocket very far along in the development stage but program to miniaturize the nuclear program never came of the ground.
    They were never ICBMS, more like SRBM in a similar class to the SCUD-D. seems to have been a Jericho copy.

    On the question of our nukes, they were devices. I doubt they could have been of much actual use considering the only delivery method we had was buccaneers for a long time.

    I initially wanted to do my dissertation on the apartheid military-industrial complex, but my supervisor declined my request for safety reasons.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mic View Post
    Yeah, as far as I know, six nukes were produced. Five were dismantled. The sixth? Vela incident comes to mind....
    It may have been more, but there's not real public or published knowledge on this yet.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    There is two books out that deals with the project the one by A.J. Venter which is not bad but does not go into detail. The second book is written by an ex scientest that worked on the project and he was able to access the archives. https://www.warbooks.co.za/products/...wielligh-steyn This book goes into a lot of detail.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by frac View Post
    There is two books out that deals with the project the one by A.J. Venter which is not bad but does not go into detail. The second book is written by an ex scientest that worked on the project and he was able to access the archives. https://www.warbooks.co.za/products/...wielligh-steyn This book goes into a lot of detail.
    I had a look at both. Some of its not referenced and some of it is conjecture.

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    Default Re: Only one country has ever built nuclear weapons and then destroyed them

    Quote Originally Posted by Captain Hook View Post
    They were never ICBMS, more like SRBM in a similar class to the SCUD-D. seems to have been a Jericho copy.

    On the question of our nukes, they were devices. I doubt they could have been of much actual use considering the only delivery method we had was buccaneers for a long time.

    I initially wanted to do my dissertation on the apartheid military-industrial complex, but my supervisor declined my request for safety reasons.
    Yes, I think the RSA-2 would be classed as medium range missile.

    Called it ICBM program because the eventual goal was the RSA-4 an enlarged version of the 3 stage RSA-3

    On the nuclear bombs, they probably only ever served as small scale MAD type scenario, where they would be dropped on Namibian or South African soil in case of a large scale overrunning push by Angolan, Cuban and Soviet forces.

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