The Development of South Africa’s Nuclear Capability

Abstract

As with the exploitation of her uranium resources, South Africa’s capability in fundamental nuclear research was gained in the 1950s and 1960s mainly with British and American help. The South African Atomic Energy Board (AEB) was established in 1949 as a result of the passage of the South African Atomic Energy Act of 1948; and during this time there was a very close relationship between the AEB, the US Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC) and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA, formerly the Ministry of Supply). The USAEC and UKAEA relied on the AEB for a large share of the supply of uranium needed for the American and British weapons programmes. Thus the USAEC and the UKAEA felt obliged to cooperate in the development of South Africa’s capability in nuclear science and technology. As we saw in Chapter 2, Eisenhower’s 1953 Atoms for Peace initiative could in part be viewed as a formal recognition of the importance of the uranium-supplying countries. An agreement for nuclear cooperation between the United States and South Africa (in effect between the USAEC and the AEB) came into effect in 1957. The agreement is similar to those negotiated between the United States and forty other countries during the 1950s under the 1954 US Atomic Energy Act, passed after Eisenhower’s 1953 speech.