U.S. jittery over South African nuclear explosives

South Africa has enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) to fuel at leat six atomic bombs but is not about to give it up, according to a major investigative piece in the March 15 Washington Post. The HEU was extracted from the country’s now abandoned nuclear weapons program developed under the apartheid regime, and aided and abetted by the United States which now fears the materials could fall into the wrong hands. The Zuma government is also eager to develop nuclear power. South Africa currently has only one small research reactor at the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center (pictured) where security breaches have already occurred and where the HEU is housed. More