Was the 1979 explosion a nuclear one?

Undecided

Banned
Banned
This has been in contention for a very long time, in Sept.1979 a US satellite detected that there was a flash off the coast of Africa.

22 September 1979
A US Vela surveillance satellite detects a "brief, intense, double flash of light near the southern tip of Africa." Due to its characteristics, the US officials estimate that the flash could have resulted from the test of a nuclear device with a yield of 2-4 kilotons. South Africa emerges "as the prime suspect," but the South African government denies that it has conducted a nuclear test. There are also rumors that Israel conducted a nuclear test, either alone or in conjunction with South Africa. US President Jimmy Carter assembles a panel of non-governmental scientists to determine whether the flash registered by the Vela was the result of a nuclear explosion.[29]

Ok so there is the background of the actual situation, South Africa had developed a nuclear weapon by this period in time. Both Israel and South Africa were very important allies to each other, not only were both outcasts, they did share an ideological imperative with each other. Apartheid South Africa used the same strategy that Israel used in terms of its nuclear weapons program, nuclear ambiguity. This was the finding of the panel by Jimmy Carter:

Mid-1980
The US panel of scientists assembled by President Carter releases its public report on the double flash detected by the Vela satellite in 1979. The panel concludes that the "signal was probably not from a nuclear explosion," but it does not "rule out the possibility." The Central Intelligence Agency, the Naval Research Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Defense Intelligence Agency contest the panel's conclusions, saying they believe that the data indicates a nuclear explosion.[33]


By the early 90’s South Africa had approx. 10 nuclear devices, and had acquired the Jericho technology from Israel. There is even a controversy as to why South Africa gave up her nuclear weapons, was it because they wanted to assimilate back into the world community, or rather they didn’t want the Blacks to take control of the bomb? The South African story is one of immense interest and intrigue. Apartheid South Africa was bad, but it sure was interesting.
 
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