Report reveals SA, Israel nuke test in 1979

Published May 19, 2006

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Israel and South Africa carried out a nuclear test on an offshore platform in the northern Antarctic in 1979, according to a newly disclosed US document, Yediot Aharonot newspaper said on Friday.

The document, released at the request of the security studies centre at Georgetown University in Washington, says a mystery explosion detected on September 22, 1979, by a US satellite was a nuclear test.

Prepared for the White House in December 1979, it said Israel and South Africa, then under apartheid rule, were co-operating on military issues, including nuclear research.

US intelligence services reported in 1990 that South Africa was producing nuclear weapons, while Israel is estimated to possess 200 nuclear warheads, although it has never confirmed or denied holding such weapons.

South Africa later dismantled its nuclear weapons programme under UN supervision. - Sapa-AFP

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