South Africa Critics Allege 1979 Nuclear Test, Cover-up by U.S.

A study released Tuesday by opponents of South Africa’s apartheid system asserts that a 1979 “double flash of light” detected by a U.S. intelligence satellite in the South Atlantic was a nuclear explosion.

The study suggests the alleged test was carried out by either South Africa or Israel, or by the two nations acting jointly.

The 29-page report, released by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and the Washington Office on Africa, a private church- and union-based lobbying group, accused the Administration of President Jimmy Carter of engaging at the time in a cover-up by casting doubt that the mystery flashes were actually caused by a nuclear device.

The report, written by Ronald Walters, a Howard University political science professor, said evidence was provided indicating that the flashes were not a natural phenomenon. He said the evidence came in part from tests showing high levels of radioactivity in the thyroids of Australian sheep soon after the flashes were spotted by the U.S. satellite, the Vela.

It went on to say that data compiled by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and by American meteorologists indicate that “wind and weather currents could have taken fallout from a nuclear test on Sept. 22 . . . to the area in Australia where the sheep were located.”

The report also quotes a State Department official as saying that the “signature” the Vela satellite picked up that September--a “double flash”--had been spotted on 41 previous occasions.

“In every one of those 41 instances, there was never any question about the fact that a nuclear test had taken place,” the official was quoted as saying.

The South African government has denied detonating a nuclear device in 1979.

State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said the department has no reason to change a 1980 U.S. government conclusion “that the case for a bomb test has not been proven.”

An Israeli Embassy spokesman, Victor Harel, asked for his reaction, noted that Israel never comments on its nuclear capability except to say that it will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons in the Mideast.

According to the report’s writers, its conclusions were based on 500 pages of Naval Research Laboratory documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.