Overview - Special Weapons Facilities
The South African nuclear weapons development effort was sequentially centered in four facilities over the life of the program.
- Initially, the AEC secretly worked on the nuclear program in downtown Pretoria.
- In the mid-1960s the South African nuclear weapons program moved from downtown Pretoria to the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center.
- The Y-Plant pilot uranium enrichment plant was built at Valindaba / Pelindaba East to produce highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
- In 1979 nuclear weapons production responsibility was transfered from the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center to ARMSCOR (the State owned Armaments Corporation). This led to the construction of the Kentron Circle facility, subsequently named Advena.
Published reports provided conflicting information on the location of the pilot-scale Y-plant and semi-commercial Z-plant at Valindaba and Pelindaba. In addition, some sources placed these facilities at rather considerable distance from each other, while other sources suggested that they were adjacent. Some reported locations were perhaps implausible, since Valindaba was also known as Pelindaba East, and consequently might be imagined to be located "east" rather than north or west of Pelindaba.
In fact, satellite imagery demonstrates that Valindaba and Pelindaba are the same facility, separated by no more than a security perimeter, though surrounded by a common security perimeter.
The South African nuclear weapons program provides interesting insight into other small or clandestine nuclear weapons programs, such as might be underway in Iran. While the nuclear materials production complex at Pelindaba is large, and marked by evident signatures, the buildings associated with the weapons program itself are small and entirely non-descript.
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