Title of paper

1.7 Reprocessing

Reprocessing is the name given to the extraction of plutonium from spent fuel, the high-level waste generated by the nuclear energy industry. It is an extremely dirty, expensive and energy-intensive process. Its aim is to utilise the plutonium in ‘fast-breeder’ reactors, or to mix it with enriched uranium to form a fuel called ‘mox’ which can be used in some reactors. Another use of plutonium is in nuclear weapons. If you possess the technology for reprocessing, chances are you are able to manufacture nuclear weapons.

As a result of reprocessing being so difficult and costly, only a few countries have reprocessing plants. These include China, Great Britain, France, India, Japan, Pakistan and Russia. Of these Japan is the only state not to possess nuclear weapons. Reprocessing sites in Belgium, Italy, Germany and the USA have been closed.

One result of reprocessing is to take the spent fuel and encapsulate it in glass. This is called vitrification. The glass-encased waste is then disposed of in high-level storage sites.

2. Links in the nuclear fuel chain

The nuclear fuel chain can now be constituted as a whole, and with small differences in the numbering system, is visible in the diagram below. The important thing to remember is that if a country possesses enrichment and reprocessing capabilities, it will be in a position to manufacture nuclear weapons. Therefore the chain shows the links between the nuclear energy industry and nuclear weapons.

Please note:

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  Possession of the technology at links 3 and 7 enable countries to develop nuclear weapons
  
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  Depleted uranium can also be used in weapons (link 3)
  
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  Links 6 and 9 have been combined in the text
  
• 
  Links 7 and 8 have been combined in the text
  

3. The nuclear fuel chain in Africa

Africa is mostly used as a series of sites for exploring and mining of uranium. Only in South Africa have other steps in the nuclear fuel chain been introduced. These have implications for the rest of Africa, because South Africa is helping to promote the use of nuclear energy across the continent, and selling some of its nuclear power to Namibia.

Exploration is found in Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic (suspended), Chad, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.

Mining is taking place in Mali, Niger, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa. Mining has ceased in Gabon.

South Africa possessed nuclear weapons (1978-1990), and had other steps in the fuel chain (conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication) which it is seeking to renew. South Africa’s government wants to order between six and eight reactors. Other governments in Africa have expressed an interest in acquiring more links in the nuclear fuel chain.

4. Summary

In Africa our governments are arguing that it is necessary to introduce further links in the chain at national level. In the case of most minerals, the idea of having more of the value chain inside the country makes sense. But uranium is not the same, since there are a number of negative implications for health, environment and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction if countries take this position. Therefore citizens of Namibia and elsewhere should be alert to the potential dangers of ‘beneficiating’ uranium. Responsible debate on these matters involves clear and detailed knowledge of all the links in the nuclear fuel chain.

Nuclear Weapons Proliferation – Namibia’s Responsibilities

By David Fig

1. Africa and the bomb

1.1 The Manhattan Project

This was the name of the secret project to build the nuclear bomb in the US involving thousands of scientists during the last part of World War II. It was felt that the US and its allies needed this bomb to defeat Germany. By May 1945, Germany had surrendered and the war in Europe was over. But the US was still at war with Japan. The first nuclear bomb was tested in July 1945. On 6 August of the same year, the US dropped a bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. On 9 August, the US dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives and others took time to die from the effects of radioactivity. Soon after these catastrophic events, Japan surrendered and the war came to an end. The uranium in the US bombs came from Africa, sourced in the Congo, which was then under Belgian colonial rule.

1.2 Uranium for the US and British bomb programme

After the end of the war, the US and Britain wanted to continue to build nuclear weapons. The uranium for these weapons came from the gold mines in South Africa. Secretly the US and Britain paid the South African mining companies to process and sell all its uranium to them for military use. The secret contract was signed soon after the introduction of apartheid in 1948. The weapons countries needed the uranium and so turned a blind eye to the apartheid practices in SA and Namibia denounced at the United Nations as a crime against humanity.

1.3 Weapons testing in Africa

After 1945, the world divided into capitalist and communist blocs. Instead of turning their nuclear weapons over to a neutral body, countries kept control of their weapons. Under conditions of Cold War (non-combat) the two sides initiated a nuclear arms race. The US tested its weapons in the Pacific Ocean (some islanders had to leave their homes forever), while Britain used the Australian desert (displacing aboriginal communities). The French used the Sahara desert in their colony of Algeria to test nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s. The uranium in these weapons came from another colony, Niger, in West Africa.