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The South African nuclear weapons production facility, having been transferred in 1979 from the Pelindaba nuclear research center to the state-owned Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), was later developed as the Kentron Circle facility. This facility, built in 1980, and located 20km west of Pretoria, was subsequently renamed 'Advena'.

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Nuclear family

Extended family

See also

External links

Nuclear family

At Pelindaba, mini nukes of the gun-type design were developed. Armscor established a production line there in 1981 and produced at least one nuclear device of a 10-18 kilotons yield each year.

Extended family

Advena Central Laboratories were constructed in the mid-1980s to extend South Africa's nuclear capabilities from gun-type weapons to inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) delivery platforms. Work to produce advanced warhead designs was also developed. Working with Israel at Advena, a 2000 km-range missile – based on the Jericho II ICBM – was designed and tested. The construction of Advena was completed at the same time as South Africa's nuclear program was terminated in the lead-up to Nelson Mandela's election in 1994.

See also

★ South Africa and weapons of mass destruction

★ Vela Incident

★ History of South Africa in the apartheid era

External links

★ Advena/Kentron Circle

★ Blast from the past: Lab scientists receive vindication

★ South Africa and the affordable bomb