NPT Non-nuclear Weapon State
Formerly Possessed Nuclear Weapons
Arsenal Size
- South Africa manufactured 6 air-deliverable nuclear weapons of the "gun-type" design. [1]
- The government halted its nuclear weapons program in 1989 and dismantled existing weapons and production equipment. [2]
Weapons System
- The weapons produced were non-strategic gun–type weapons. [3]
- Each of the six nuclear devices contained 55 kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU). [4] South Africa possessed enough HEU for a seventh weapon, but this weapon was never completed. [5]
- The nuclear devices could have been delivered by a modified Buccaneer bomber. [6] A multi-stage booster rocket (RSA 3) may have been a prototype for an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). [7]
- The space-launch vehicle (SLV) program was abandoned in 1993. [8]
Destructive Power
- Each device had an estimated yield of 10-18 kt. [9]
Warheads Dismantled
Medical isotope molybdenum-99
(Mo-99) produced with low
enriched uranium (LEU),
nnsa.energy.gov
- On 26 February 1990, President Frederik Willem de Klerk ordered the destruction of the six completed nuclear weapons and the seventh partially completed device. [10]
- President de Klerk announced to South Africa’s Parliament on 24 March 1993 the existence and abandonment of the former nuclear weapons program. [11]
- IAEA inspections between April and August 1993 confirmed the complete dismantlement of the nuclear weapons program. [12]
- As of 2015 South Africa still possessed approximately 185 lbs. of HEU in a central facility under IAEA safeguards. [13]
Nuclear Weapons Policies
RSA-3 (Shavit) LEO rocket,
South African Air Force Museum,
Swartkop NJR ZA,
commons.wikimedia.org
- The apartheid government developed a three-stage deterrence strategy in 1978, fearing a direct invasion or an invasion of South African-controlled Namibia by Soviet-backed forces. [14]
- The departure of Cuban forces from Angola, Namibia's independence, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union enabled South Africa to abandon its nuclear weapons program in 1989. [15] Isolated from the global economy, the government also recognized that South Africa would benefit more from giving up its nuclear weapons program than maintaining it. [16]
- Following the dismantlement of South Africa's nuclear weapons, the domestic 1993 Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act committed South Africa to abstain from developing nuclear weapons. [17]
Disarmament and Treaty Commitments
- 1 July 1991: Deposited accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapon state party. [18]
- 11 April 1996: Joined with other African nations to sign the Treaty of Pelindaba to create a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone on the African continent. [19]
- 24 September 1996: Signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) (ratified in 1999). [20]
- Member of the New Agenda Coalition in support of a nuclear weapons free world. [21]
- As one of the most vocal state advocates of nuclear disarmament, South Africa supports proposals to create a new legally binding framework containing clear benchmarks and timelines to achieve and maintain a world free of nuclear weapons. [22]
- South Africa supports the Austria-led Humanitarian Initiative, which calls for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons as an assurance that they will not be used "under any circumstances.” [23] The alternative Australia-led Initiative does not use such language. [24]
- South Africa was a leader in encouraging negotiations on a UN- proposed nuclear weapons ban treaty at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly. [25]
- Signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 20 September 2017. [26]
Sources:
[1] Roy E. Horton, III, "Out of (South) Africa: Pretoria's Nuclear Weapons Experience," INSS Occassional Paper 27, Counterproliferation Series, August 1999, www.usafa.edu.
[2] J.W de Villiers, Roger Jardine, Mitchell Reiss, "Why South Africa Gave Up the Bomb," Foreign Affairs, November/December 1993, www.lexisnexis.com.
[3] International Atomic Energy Agency, "The Denuclearization of Africa (GC(XXXVII)/RES/577)," Report by the Director General, 9 September 1993, www.iaea.org.
[4] David Albright, "South Africa's Secret Nuclear Weapons," Institute for Science and International Security, 1 May 1994, www.isis-online.org.
[5] International Atomic Energy Agency, "The Denuclearization of Africa (GC(XXXVII)/RES/577)," Report by the Director General, 9 September 1993, www.iaea.org.
[6] David Albright, "South Africa's Secret Nuclear Weapons," Institute for Science and International Security, 1 May 1994, www.isis-online.org.
[7] Department for Disarmament Affairs, Report of the Secretary General, "South Africa's Nuclear-Tipped Ballistic Missile Capability," United Nations, September 1991, www.un.org; "RSA-3" Encyclopedia Astronautica, www.astronautix.com.
[8] Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, Miriam Rajkumar, "South Africa," in Deadly Arsenals (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), pp. 407-418.
[9] David Albright, "South Africa's Secret Nuclear Weapons," Institute for Science and International Security, 1 May 1994, www.isis-online.org.
[10] Adolf von Baeckmann, Garry Dillon, Demetrius Perricos, "Nuclear Verification in South Africa," IAEA Bulletin, 1995, pp. 42-48, www.iaea.org.
[11] Adolf von Baeckmann, Garry Dillon, Demetrius Perricos, "Nuclear Verification in South Africa," IAEA Bulletin, 1995, pp. 42-48, www.iaea.org.
[12] Adolf von Baeckmann, Garry Dillon, Demetrius Perricos, "Nuclear Verification in South Africa," IAEA Bulletin, 1995, pp. 42-48, www.iaea.org.
[13] Douglas Birch and R. Jeffrey Smith, "South Africa Rebuffs Repeated U.S. Demands That It Relinquish Its Nuclear Explosives," The Center for Public Integrity, 14 March 2015, www.publicintegrity.org.
[14] Roy E. Horton, III, "Out of (South) Africa: Pretoria's Nuclear Weapons Experience," INSS Occassional Paper 27, Counterproliferation Series, August 1999, www.usafa.edu.
[15] "South Africa: Past Nuclear Policies," Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, November 2006, archives.sipri.org.
[16] J.W de Villiers, Roger Jardine, Mitchell Reiss, "Why South Africa Gave Up the Bomb," Foreign Affairs, November/December 1993, www.lexisnexis.com.
[17] "South Africa: Past Nuclear Policies," Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, November 2006, archives.sipri.org.
[18] Status of the Treaty: Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs, https://disarmament.un.org.
[19] Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, Miriam Rajkumar, "South Africa," in Deadly Arsenals (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), pp. 407-418.
[20] Status of Signature and Ratification, CTBTO: Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, www.ctbto.org.
[21] South African Department of Foreign Affairs, "Communique on Foreign-Ministerial-Level Meeting of the New Agenda Coalition in New York," 23 September 1999, www.info.gov.za.
[22] Statement at the 2015 NPT Review Conference General Debate by Ms. Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, Deputy Director-General, Multilateral Branch, Department of International Relations and Cooperation, 29 April 2015, www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
[23] "Joint Statement on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons," Statement by the Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austria, Reaching Critical Will, 28 April 2015, www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
[24] "Statement on the Humanitarian Consequences of Nuclear Weapons," Statement by the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations, Reaching Critical Will, 30 April 2015, www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
[25] "Taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament agreements," UNGA 71st session, 14 October 2016, https://reachingcriticalwill.org.
[26] “Positions on the treaty,” International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, 7 July 2017, www.icanw.org.
