A break-in at a South African nuclear complex alarms Washington and strains relations years later
This is a fuller, more detailed account of the issues surrounding an alarming break-in at Pelindaba than the Center for Public Integrity published with a partner on March 15.
PELINDABA – To gain access to South Africa’s main nuclear research center here, where nearly a quarter-ton of nuclear explosives are stored, approved visitors are supposed to be checked by fingerprint scanners at the three main entrances, installed as part of an American-financed security upgrade.
Unless, of course, the scanners are not working, in which case the guard may just wave a visitor through a vehicle entrance several steps away – as happened with a reporter, twice, during visits a few days apart to this remote, scrubland site last year.
Related: South Africa rebuffs repeated U.S. demands that it relinquish its nuclear explosives
Pelindaba, situated west of the capital of Pretoria, is considered a “national key point” by the South African government, a highly-sensitive facility that is a potential target for sabotage. It was once the center of South Africa’s clandestine nuclear weapons program, which built 6 bombs and left behind a reservoir of weapons-usable fuel.
Whether that stockpile -- enough highly-enriched uranium (HEU) for more bombs like the one that devastated Hiroshima -- is adequately guarded from theft has been a recurrent source of friction between Washington and Pretoria, according to officials in both capitals.
A break-in at Pelindaba by two armed groups more than seven years ago convinced senior U.S. officials and some independent security experts that the vault holding the fuel lacks adequate counter-terror protections. As a result, Washington has been waging a quiet, but unsuccessful, diplomatic campaign to convince South Africa to relinquish the vault’s HEU.
Related: Global stocks of weapons uranium
Government officials here depict the break-in as a routine burglary, and complain that Washington is needlessly obsessed about Pelindaba’s security. The nuclear arsenals of the world’s militaries pose far greater dangers than the highly-enriched uranium located here, senior South African diplomats say.
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Nuclear Waste. A look at the world’s faltering efforts to control dangerous nuclear explosives. Click here to read more stories in this investigation.
Related stories
Japan could be building an irresistible terrorist target, experts say
South Africa rebuffs repeated U.S. demands that it relinquish its nuclear explosives
Obama proposes shifting funds from nuclear nonproliferation to nuclear weapons
Nuclear Waste: How a huge U.S. nonproliferation program became a major proliferation concern
Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
