Revisiting South Africa: From the Reading
What was the primary task Reactor Development Division? What else did they start working on?
"Develop a gun-type nuclear device, but in parallel, it started rudimentary work on implosion-type and thermonuclear devices" Page 24
"At home, unbeknownst to Khan, the new government of Ali Bhutto already had decided what to do:" What did the Pakistani government decide to do?
They had decided to go nuclear.
Who initiated the cultural revolution in China and sent the country into chaos?
Mao Zedong
Explain what "chaos day" was.
"The plant’s problems reached their peak during August 1979, which the Y plant workers call “chaos day.” This unexpected event ended the production of 80 percent HEU for 23 months, until July 1981. Chaos day resulted from greater than normal chlorine impurities in locally produced uranium hexafluoride feed, which in turn caused a massive chemical reaction in the uranium gas and the hydrogen carrier gas." Page 61
Who was Mao Zedong and how did he rule?
Mao Zedong was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the PRC. He had close ties with Satlin. He wanted to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society.
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"While the team progressed at Somerset West, other groups in the Reactor Development Division were working on other parts of the PNE program. One key question was where to house the growing number of people associated with the program while also keeping their work secret." Where was the new location?
"The idea was to “be close but not too close,” The decision was made to put the PNE facilities on the other side of this valley." Page 29
At exactly midnight on the date David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, proclaimed what? What did this cause?
He proclaimed the independence of the new State of Israel. The armies of five neighboring countries attacked the newly proclaimed State of Israel. Many people/ countries were not happy about this separation.
Who was born in India and moved to Europe to pursue education as well as “collect” (steal) information along the way?
Abdul Qadeer Khan (A.Q Khan)
Describe the new responsibilities of the key groups for making PNEs in the transformed Reactor Development Division.
- Nuclear Engineering Group studied the possible civil applications of nuclear devices in South Africa.
- Theoretical Reactor Physics Group developed computer codes for the design of nuclear devices, including neutron data, criticality studies, and explosive yield estimates.
- Nuclear Chemistry Group handled investigations into the production of thermonuclear materials.
- Page 24-25
In November 1979, Saudi radicals took over the grand mosque of Islam. What happened during this attack and what resulted from this?
Bonus (double points): How was this attack able to happen (who was involved)?
A thousand organized and well-armed men seized control of the Grand Mosque at Mecca, Islam's most holy place. The attack was led by Juhayman al- Utaibi and was fought by his followers. Sympathizers in the National Guard had smuggled automatic weapons and supplies into the mosque. Once in place, the militants called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and a return to strict Islamist practices.
Page 168
"The 1971 decision to proceed with type a devices included approval to work on a “boosted” nuclear explosive, referred to as type A." Did this mixture change how effective the device was? If yes, did it increase or decrease the effectiveness?
Bonus (double points for this question): What was the mixture made out of?
This device was envisioned to use a mixture of lithium, tritium, and deuterium inside the fission device that would dramatically increase the overall explosive energy of the device. Page 41
Within five years of Qaddafi's takeover, during Israel's Yom Kippur War in 1973, Qaddafi organized what? He also pioneered the first _________?
The OPEC embargo of oil shipments to the United States and its Western allies. He also pioneered the first "oil shock" raising the price from $3.50 to $13 per barrel and making those increases stick.
This person was a Libyan leader that performed terrorist activities during the Cold War Era?
Muammar al-Qaddafi
"Any dragontype reactor must be built with safety as a primary concern, and it must be operated carefully." Why? What are some risk that come with building and using a dragontype reactor?
- If a slug had become stuck in the US dragon machine, the highly enriched uranium would have become supercritical, causing a small nuclear explosion
- South Africa apparently attempted to mitigate this danger in several ways. It built Building 5000 at the bottom of a depression surrounded by hills in an isolated portion of its main nuclear site (see figures 2.11 and 2.12). The control room was in Building 5100, which was almost three quarters of a kilometer away and shielded from the reactor by a hill. After the dragon test, the reactor was never used again.
Page 36
What happened in October 1973? How was the United States involved?
The massive resupply of Israel, indelibly marked the United States as a primary enemy of the Arab world, thus triggering the oil embargoes and price- fixing that would become Arabia's prime weapons in the decades to come.
"From the South African government’s perspective, it would have been prudent in many cases to acquire an item from abroad rather than make it." Why would it benefit them to outsource for resources?
"South Africa did not have the industrial base to make all the necessary machine tools, sophisticated equipment, and components. Thus, foreign procurement was necessary for many key items. In its quest to build and operate the Y Plant, South Africa participated in a range of questionable or illegal imports." Page 54
"In early 1967, Ms. Gandhi was elected prime minister. In June of that year, the Chinese conducted their first thermonuclear test." What did this cause Ms. Gandhi to do?
By the end of the year Ms. Gandhi made the very secret decision to proceed with a nuclear weapons program of her own.
Who took full power in Iraq and was known as a powerful leader, while using terror to achieve it?
Saddam Hussein
"Chaos day was the surprise finale of a rash of problems in the Y Plant that had occurred after it started enriching uranium in 1974. These problems, some of which defied explanation, significantly complicated the plant’s startup and then reduced its enriched uranium output." What were some of these problems?
- The first type of problem was due to inefficient mechanical processes in the Y Plant cascade, which stretched throughout the blocks, which led to the enriched and depleted streams combining again after leaving the separator elements, commonly called “mixing.”
- The plant also suffered from an unexpected loss of separating capacity
Pages 62- 63
In July 1979, who takes over Iraq and what do they do once in power? What was the result of his actions?
Saddam Hussein took over control and led Iraq into war with Iran in the Iraq- Iraq War and with Kuwait in the lead-up to the Persian Gulf War. He refused to fully cooperate with international inspections for proscribed weapons which led to the invasion of Iraq by the U.S and allies in the Iraq War.
Page 167
"Another controversial issue is the nature of UCOR cooperation with the German company Steag AG on a joint uranium enrichment endeavor between 1973 and 1976."What is STEAG?
"South Africa did not have the industrial base to make all the necessary machine tools, sophisticated equipment, and components. Thus, foreign procurement was necessary for many key items. In its quest to build and operate the Y Plant, South Africa participated in a range of questionable or illegal imports." Page 57
"In response to the events of 1977, management of the nuclear weapons program within South Africa changed." How was it changed?
Scientific exploration of nuclear explosives, physics work, and advanced technology was to continue. But responsibility for the covert development of a practical and viable nuclear deterrent to include the production of a safe and secure nuclear weapon and moved to a more business oriented organization.
This person was India’s first prime minister who helped open the Atomic Energy Commission. Stated that India is not afraid to use nuclear energy for war purposes.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Vorster stated South Africa’s willingness to place all its nuclear activities under IAEA safeguards subject to the following conditions. What are some of the conditions and the reasoning behind them?
- South Africa would in no way be limited in the promotion of the peaceful application of nuclear energy;
- South Africa would not run the risk that details of the new enrichment process might leak out as a result of the safeguards inspection system;
- The safeguards system, while efficient, would be implemented on such a reasonable basis as to avoid interference with the normal efficient operation of the particular industries.
Page 46
What were some of the key events that happened during the 1980, involving South Africa?
- 1981; South Africa had completed construction of a nuclear weapons engineering facility within the Girotek vehicle test facility west of Pretoria
- 1982; The first prototype South African U-235 A-bomb, was delivered to the weapon storage vaults at the Circle
- 1985; The Cuban presence in Angola had grown to an alarming size: thirty-one thousand troops, supported by three thousand East German and Russian advisors. The South African government feared a "total onslaught by communist forces."
- 1989; The South African nuclear weapons program had produced about nine hundred pounds of HEU, and South Africa's Jericho-2 IRBM had flown successfully, but change was blowing in the wind.
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