Valindaba
Encyclopedia
The Valindaba site, also known as Pelindaba East or Y-plant, is an experimental uranium enrichment plant, located 35 km west of Pretoria
, Gauteng
province, South Africa
.
in 1978. It was shut down for almost two years following an accident in 1979, but was back in production by 1981 and since then has produced all the fuel required by SAFARI-1
Y-Plant ceased production on 1 February 1991 and was dismantled the same year.
The plant uses a process developed in South Africa to accumulate the uranium
235 isotope
.
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
, Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...
province, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
History
Y-Plant was completed in 1975 by the Uranium Enrichment Corporation of South Africa (UCOR) and started producing HEUEnriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711% of its weight...
in 1978. It was shut down for almost two years following an accident in 1979, but was back in production by 1981 and since then has produced all the fuel required by SAFARI-1
SAFARI-1
SAFARI-1 is a 20 MW research reactor, initially used for high level nuclear physics research programmes and was commissioned in 1965.The reactor is owned and operated by NECSA at their facility in Pelindaba, South Africa....
Y-Plant ceased production on 1 February 1991 and was dismantled the same year.
The plant uses a process developed in South Africa to accumulate the uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
235 isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
.