South Africa's nuclear munificence is stockpiled in the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Centre, just west of Pretoria. Within a secure vault smoulders almost a quarter of a tonne of highly enriched uranium, enough to make about ten cities go boom. Using diplomacy by other means--AKA an expose by an outfit called the Centre of Public Integrity, published in the Washington Post--the Americans have announced that they believe Pelindaba to be one of the world's great security threats. How afraid should we be? RICHARD POPLAK dons a nuclear protection radiation suit and wades in.
Here's a question for pre-nuclear winter South Africa: how does one distinguish between regular, old-school robbery and high-stakes atom bomb brinkmanship intended to usher in World War IV?
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