U.S. Sees Pretoria Staying in Atomic Energy Body

South Africa will remain in the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. Energy Secretary John S. Herrington said Tuesday, after U.S.-Soviet talks on Pretoria’s willingness to sign a nuclear non-proliferation pact.

“We had a meeting with the Soviets this morning, and we reached common ground on the South African issue,” Herrington told reporters.

“It really means that South Africa will not be excluded this week,” he said, because the move to oust the Pretoria government will now lack Soviet Bloc support.

South African President Pieter W. Botha said Monday in Cape Town that his government will negotiate nuclear safeguards and sign a 1968 treaty on nuclear non-proliferation.

Botha’s statement was distributed Tuesday at the IAEA general meeting in Vienna, which was discussing the South African issue and a similar move to expel Israel. African delegates refused immediate comment.

Until now, South Africa’s refusal to submit all its nuclear facilities to inspection and to sign the accord has swelled support for its ouster from the 113-member IAEA.

The United States and other Western nations opposed the move, saying opposition to South Africa centered less on its nuclear policy than on its policies of apartheid, or racial segregation.

Herrington met with Andronik M. Petrosyants, head of the Soviet delegation to the IAEA general conference. The Soviets agreed with the American view that “it is better to have South Africa in the organization than out,” said a source close to the U.S. delegation.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said South Africa’s willingness to sign the 1968 accord created more support for South Africa.

A compromise resolution will be introduced at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s meeting this week by an African delegation, the source said.

Until now, the Soviet Bloc had been counted among those likely to vote for the ouster of South Africa. A two-thirds majority is required to vote any country out of the IAEA.

South Africa has allowed inspections at its sole nuclear power plant, but not of its uranium enrichment plant and main nuclear research facility.