Nuclear Reactor At Pelindaba Goes Critical

On this date the nuclear reactor Safari, located in Pelindaba, near Pretoria, went critical and South Africa entered the nuclear age. The US firm Allis Chalmers Corporation had supplied South Africa with the 20MW Safari-1 nuclear reactor and highly enriched uranium (HEU) to fuel it. South Africa's nuclear program began after World War II when uranium deposits were discovered in the country. The project was not initially started with military ambitions.

South Africa is the only country in the world to give up its nuclear weapons voluntarily.

Links for further reading

Click here for the full text of the Pelindaba Treaty. Click here to read more about the Pelindaba Treaty. Click here to find out how a nuclear reactor works. Read more about protests against the Pelindaba Nuclear project. Read more about South Africa nuclear history.

Sources:

(author unknown), (2003). 'Milestones', The Star, 18 March, p. 2. http://www.nti.org/e_research/profiles/SAfrica/Nuclear/2149_2150.html http://web.mit.edu/ssp/spring01/albright.htm