SA nuclear technology was destroyed, says De Klerk

South African nuclear technology developed during the apartheid era was destroyed later under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the country's former president FW de Klerk said on Monday.

De Klerk's comments at a press conference were in response to speculation that uranium from South Africa's former nuclear programme might have been traded on the black market.

South Africa had developed a number of uranium enrichment devices independently before he became president in 1989 but he ordered the dismantling of the programme after taking up office, de Klerk said.

"Every milligramme of the material that went into the six and a half devices that we developed, was accounted for," he said, adding an audit later certified that South Africa had properly accounted for the decommissioned devices. In July 1999 South Africa signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and made its facilities available for inspection by the IAEA.

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