Pelindaba: Secret, apartheid-era technology for highly enriched uranium dismantled

Pelindaba and its uranium-enrichment facility at Valindaba were kept secret during the apartheid era because they were enriching uranium for warheads under the guise of fuel supply, by Sarah Wild, Business Day, 1 September 2011

South Africa is the only country in the world to have willingly halted its nuclear weapons programme, through the Treaty of Pelindaba of 1996. But the old infrastructure remains.

The US provided the Safari-1 reactor through its Atoms for Peace programme, and also supplied the facility with its highly enriched uranium (HEU).

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Pelindaba: One of few profitable parastatals in South Africa

South Africa is home to the world’s leading radioisotope production nuclear reactor — Safari-1 at Pelindaba in Gauteng — which last year generated medical isotope sales totalling R795m
by Sarah Wild, Business Day, 1 September 2011

The profit-turning parastatal, the Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA (Necsa), last year saw sales of R1bn, with a group profit of R163m — earning it a place of honour as one of SA’s few profitable parastatals.

The 46-year-old Safari-1 reactor, also known as the South African Fundamental Atomic Research Installation, was provided by the US as part of its Atoms for Peace programme. "It’s a 20MW … material test reactor, which means it’s not used for electricity generation," says Necsa spokesman Elliot Mulane.

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Pelindaba: Nuclear reactor is put to use for human good

The facility’s commercial cash cow is the leading medical isotope producer in the world, writes Sarah Wild - Business Day, 1 September 2011

It was once the apartheid regime’s best-kept secret, but now the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation’s (Necsa’s) flagship facility, Pelindaba, is open to the public — if you have letters of recommendation, have provided your ID number and car registration, had your fingerprints scanned , and gone through many other, not always visible, security checks.

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