South african nuclear program israel

Horton, Roy E. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, Masiza, Zondi. Reed, Thomas C. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Press, Stumf, Waldo.

The Federation of American Scientists. September 28, Browse our collection of oral histories with workers, families, service members, and more about their experiences in the Manhattan Project. Skip to main content. South African Nuclear Program. History Page Type:. International Nuclear Programs. Wednesday, August 15, Nelson Mandela and F. More Historical Resources:. A gun-type nuclear weapon is launched from an aircraft only.

The South African gun-type bomb weighed about a ton. It was 1. The power of such a bomb was equivalent to the one dropped on Hiroshima. The South African announcement and similar statements that de Klerk had made noted that South Africa developed nuclear devices without the help of any foreign state.

It also said South Africa "never carried out a nuclear test, not in the atmosphere nor underground. Nor was South Africa involved in any other country's nuclear test. However, in , Aziz Pahad, the deputy minister of foreign affairs in Nelson Mandela's government, confirmed to me that the flash was "definitely a nuclear test. There are many reports of relations between the two states' scientists and cooperation regarding very specific equipment.

Constand Viljoen, an Afrikaner pillar of the Apartheid regime who commanded South Africa's ground forces from to and then was chief of general staff for five years, said: "We wanted to get nuclear know-how from anywhere we could and from Israel, too.

Viljoen, who visited Israel and conferred with senior officers, said he had opposed his country's nuclear program as a waste of money and resources.

Ambitious politicians and the heads of the Armscor arms corporation [where the nuclear weapons were developed - Y. As a good soldier I was compelled to obey them.

Israel never acknowledged it has nuclear weapons. That is why it cannot admit it carried out a test, that it took part in another country's test or that it helped carry it out. However, various publications and American documents indicate that in , then prime minister Golda Meir reached a secret understanding with the then U. Since , members of the nuclear club have carried out more than 2, nuclear tests. Of those, have been defined as tests "for peaceful purposes.

India carried out three tests one of them, in , for "peaceful purposes". In the last three years North Korea conducted two tests. Can a state produce an operational nuclear weapon without testing it? Yes, say the experts, adding that today, with powerful computers that can accurately simulate nuclear tests, it is definitely possible to avoid an actual test.

Another possibility is that a state that has developed nuclear weapons compensates for the absence of a nuclear test by receiving or otherwise obtaining the results of a test another country has conducted. If Israeli representatives had been in South Africa in just as observers, examined the results of the tests or got them, then Israel could argue it has abided by its agreement with the United States and still benefit from extensive information about a nuclear test, avoiding the need to conduct one of its own.

Yossi Melman Aug. The memo, marked "top secret" and dated the same day as the meeting with the Israelis, has previously been revealed but its context was not fully understood because it was not known to be directly linked to the Israeli offer on the same day and that it was the basis for a direct request to Israel. In it, Armstrong writes: "In considering the merits of a weapon system such as the one being offered, certain assumptions have been made: a That the missiles will be armed with nuclear warheads manufactured in RSA Republic of South Africa or acquired elsewhere.

But South Africa was years from being able to build atomic weapons. A little more than two months later, on 4 June, Peres and Botha met in Zurich. By then the Jericho project had the codename Chalet. The top secret minutes of the meeting record that: "Minister Botha expressed interest in a limited number of units of Chalet subject to the correct payload being available. Minister Botha expressed his appreciation and said that he would ask for advice. The use of a euphemism, the "correct payload", reflects Israeli sensitivity over the nuclear issue and would not have been used had it been referring to conventional weapons.

It can also only have meant nuclear warheads as Armstrong's memorandum makes clear South Africa was interested in the Jericho missiles solely as a means of delivering nuclear weapons. In addition, the only payload the South Africans would have needed to obtain from Israel was nuclear. The South Africans were capable of putting together other warheads.

Botha did not go ahead with the deal in part because of the cost. In addition, any deal would have to have had final approval by Israel's prime minister and it is uncertain it would have been forthcoming. South Africa eventually built its own nuclear bombs, albeit possibly with Israeli assistance. But the collaboration on military technology only grew over the following years.