Advena
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates
Advena Central Laboratories was a South African nuclear weapons production facility. After weapons development was transferred from the Pelindaba nuclear research centre to the state-owned Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor) in 1979, the site was developed as the Kentron Circle facility. This facility, built in 1980 and located Template:Cvt west of Pretoria, was subsequently renamed Advena.
Nuclear family
At Pelindaba, Nuclear weapons 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," David Albright, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July 1994.
Script error: No such module "Coordinates".