SAFARI-1 reactor turns 50 as nuclear medicine benefits millions around the world
SAFARI-1 is a 20 Megawatt light water-cooled research reactor operated by the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), under the auspices of the Department of Energy (DoE).
Necsa is a state-owned public company, registered in terms of the Companies Act, (Act No. 61 of 1973). Necsa and SAFARI-1 have both enjoyed a fascinating and at times controversial history with Necsa starting out as the Atomic Energy Board (AEB) established in 1948 in terms of an Act of Parliament, with the goal of regulating the uranium industry in South Africa.
In 1959, it was decided that the country’s nuclear research and development programme would be undertaken by the AEB. Extensive investigations ensued to locate a site for the programme that met the stringent requirements specified by and adopted in the United Kingdom code. Pelindaba, situated some 30 km to the west of Pretoria, proved more than satisfactory and remains today the home of SAFARI-1 and South Africa’s nuclear research and development hub.
The SAFARI-1 reactor was built in cooperation with the Atoms for Peace program run by the US DOE in the 1950s and '60s. Planning started in 1960 and construction occurred between 1961 and 1965. The SAFARI-1 reactor core experienced criticality (stable low power level) for the first time at 18h33 on 18 March 1965 and initially operated at 6.75 MW, a limitation imposed by the capacity of the secondary cooling circuit.
The Uranium Enrichment Cor- poration (UCOR) was established in 1970 alongside the AEB to co-ordinate the development of an enrichment programme. By 1977 South Africa was among several countries in the world with the capacity to enrich uranium and plans for the building of the first nuclear power plant (Koeberg) had been finalised.
Initially, the SAFARI-1 reactor was fuelled with HEU (Highly Enriched Uranium) supplied by the United States, but in 1975 exports of HEU from the USA to South Africa was suspended in protest of South Africa's nuclear weapons program and the construction of the Valindaba Y-plant.
In 1979 the Valindaba Y-plant started producing 45% HEU and in 1981 the first fuel assemblies from Valindaba were made available to fuel SAFARI-1. Operating hours were increased, but power was kept at 5 MW until 1993 when it was increased to 10 MW and eventually 20 MW due to the commercialisation of Necsa’s operations.
On 10 July 1991, South Africa acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and went on to sign the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Safeguards Agreement in September 1991. By 1995, South Africa had become the only known country to have produced weapons grade enriched uranium and then verifiably dismantle its programme.
In the ensuing years, the organisation’s focus moved to the industrialisation of some of its core and spinoff technologies most of which were the output of SAFARI-1.
In 1999, the AEC restructured under the banner of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa). Today, Necsa’s focus is true to its mandate, namely research and development into the peaceful application of nuclear technologies, with its industrialised operations functioning as wholly owned subsidiaries.
Among its many achievements, SAFARI-1 achieved a global milestone in June 2009 when the reactor’s core was entirely fuelled with non-weapons grade uranium (Low Enriched Uranium, LEU), becoming the world’s first and only research reactor commercially producing nuclear medicine from ‘LEU’, thus allaying fears of the possibility of nuclear proliferation. This fuel is produced at Necsa.
Nuclear medicine is an integral part of modern health care. It provides a range of modern methodologies for cancer diagnoses and therapy with advanced precision, efficiency and certainty. SAFARI-1 produces a variety of medical isotopes, which are used in a large number of medical diagnoses worldwide, including cancer and cardiac. Nuclear medicine produced at SAFARI-1 is used in about 10 million medical procedures in more than 60 countries every year, saving millions of lives. South African citizens receive nuclear medicine on a first-priority basis from various hospitals in Gauteng and Cape Town.
Over the past 50 years, SAFARI-1 has been operating safely, with impressive efficiency, providing the world with numerous scientific breakthroughs and a reliable nuclear research and development platform to South Africa and other international organisations such as universities and a variety of research facilities.
Today, in terms of innovation and product output, SAFARI-1 is the most productive in the world, thanks to its efficient and pro-active management and maintenance operations.
While SAFARI-1 gracefully moves on beyond its 50th anniversary, South Africa can be justly proud of this half century nuclear achievement, which has clearly demonstrated the country’s capacity to operate, maintain and refurbish a nuclear installation of this complexity.