Prime Minister opens SA's first atomic reactor

The former Prime Minister of South Africa and apartheid mastermind, Dr H.F. Verwoerd opened South Africa's first atomic reactor, SAFARI-1 (South African Fundamental Atomic Reactor Installation-1) at Pelindaba, about thirty kilometres West of Pretoria. The installation was not intended for the production of nuclear energy on a commercial scale, but was employed for research and the production of isotopes, useful in several fields. Nuclear power would be used for peaceful purposes only, with the provision of additional energy as one of its chief aims. A secret project was begun by the Atomic Energy Board in the early 1970s to develop a unique uranium enrichment technology. Although initially devoted to peaceful nuclear research a program of weapons development began with research on nuclear explosive design in 1971. The decision to "develop a limited nuclear deterrent capability" was made in 1974. In 1996, South Africa signed the African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (Pelindaba Treaty), which is named after the place where the first atomic reactor was built. South Africa is also the only country in the world to manufacture nuclear weapons and then give them up.