Uranium Plant in S. Africa Nearly Ready

A South African uranium-enrichment plant capable of producing nuclear material for use in a bomb “is expected to be commissioned and to start operation at the beginning of 1987,” according to a report by the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Negotiations between the international agency and the South African government to put the plant under international safeguards, thus preventing its output from being used for military purposes, broke down in late August, according to the agency’s director general, Hans Blix.

The South Africans, according to agency sources, demanded the right to withdraw some enriched uranium produced by the plant for permitted uses, such as in a possible nuclear submarine. Pretoria also wanted to be able to terminate the safeguards if the International Atomic Energy Agency applied sanctions on political grounds or “if its supreme national interests were jeopardized,” Blix reported.

South Africa, which has maintained its IAEA membership without active participation since 1979, has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.