Vastrap
27°50'S 21°38'E
Beginning in 1975 two test shafts over 250 meters deep for conducting nuclear tests were drilled at the Vastrap military base in the Kalahari Desert. One shaft was intended for a 1977 "cold test" to validate the nuclear device's design. A second test approximately a year later would have been at full yield with a HEU core. A Soviet surveillance satellite detected these test preparationss in August 1977, and the Soviets notified the US of their discovery. South Africa was forced to cancel the tests in the face of diplomatic pressure from America, the Soviet Union, and France.
The site was abandoned in August 1977 and was not revisited until 1987 when the test shafts were inspected. At that time a galvanized corrugated iron shed some 100 meters long was constructed over one of the two shafts. The two test shafts were filled with concrete in 1993.
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