The Bomb: South Africa's nuclear weapons programme

This event provides an insider's view of what it took to build and dismantle South Africa's secret nuclear weapons programme.

Date: 2015-10-20

Time: 12:30 to 14:30

Venue: Permanent Mission of Japan , Donau-City-Strasse 6 , A-1220 , Vienna, Austria , Google map

RSVP: Mara Pfneisl
Phone: +43 1 236 94 82 07
Email: [email protected]
Register online: click here

South Africa’s nuclear weapons programme remained a mystery for many years.

Finally, in 1993, former president FW de Klerk announced that the country had secretly built and destroyed six-and-a-half nuclear bombs.

This event launches The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme by Nic von Wielligh. 

From 1975, von Wielligh helped produce nuclear weapons material, dismantle the nuclear weapons and provide evidence of South Africa’s credentials to the international community.

The author will be joined by a panel of well-known experts who led and participated in the dismantlement of South Africa’s nuclear weapons programme. They will discuss lessons learnt for current and future disarmament and non-proliferation needs.

The book will also be launched in Pretoria on 18 November. More details will become available closer to the time.

Chairs: 

• Laura Rockwood, Executive Director, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

• Noel Stott, Senior Research Fellow, ISS

Speakers:

• Dr Nic von Wielligh, author of The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme

• Jean du Preez, Chief of External Relations, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)

• Neville Whiting, former safeguards manager at SA’s Atomic Energy Corporation and at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

• Dimitri Perricos, former Head of the IAEA Special Team for Verification of Disarmament in SA