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Britain learned that apartheid South Africa was preparing to test an atomic bomb only after being alerted by the Russians. Previously secret papers released at the National Archives show how James Callaghan, the Labour prime minister, was informed in August 1977 of a secret test site in the Kalahari Desert in a personal letter from Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet president. A Soviet spy satellite had discovered the site at Vastrap, in a remote area south of South Africa's border with Botswana, a week earlier. Two 750-foot shafts had been drilled in preparation for underground explosions. The Americans appear to have possessed similar satellite imagery but failed to inform their closest ally until after the Brezhnev letter.

Eskom's hikes in the electricity price by around a quarter and a third in two years and its need to repeat such price increases for the next three years bring one issue to a head. Why are Eskom and the departments of energy and public enterprises so grimly determined to generate electricity by the most expensive and complicated of all options -- atomic power stations and their high-level radioactive waste depositaries? Eskom and other power companies have set up Westcor (Western Corridor Power Company), incorporated in Botswana. This has spent years conducting road shows for the World Bank and others, estimating the Inga3 hydro-electric power project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at around R70-billion.

Mmaphashalala residents in the Central District have not been exposed to radiation, says chairperson of the Radiation Protection Unit board, Mr Legwaila Legwaila Briefing the media on radiation Mr Legaila said this did not mean they were free from the adverse effects of ionising radiation as it takes years to develop. This follows theft of 16 drums containing radio active contaminated soil from Poseidon Geophysics, a company drilling boreholes in Mmamabula coal fields. Mr Legwaila said following the report of the theft, they recovered six drums in Mmaphashalala with the assistance of local police. He appealed to the public to assist in recovering the remaining drums, adding that ionising radiation could cause skin burns, sterility, cancer and death.