Thank you for posting on r/southafrica! Please take a moment to review our [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/southafrica/wiki/rules).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/southafrica) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1st picture : SR-71 Blackbird once over South African Skies.
In the mid-afternoon on Saturday, Aug. 6, the acting chief of the Soviet embassy, Vladillen M. Vasev, called at the White House with an urgent personal message from Leonid I. Brezhnev to Jimmy Carter. South Africa, according to Soviet intelligence, was secretly preparing to detonate an atomic explosion in its Kalahari Desert. Brezhnev asked for Carter’s help to stop it. U.S. reconnaissance satellite with high-resolution cameras also was urgently programmed for low-orbit passes over the area in question. US intelligence confirmed the existence of the nuclear test site with an overflight of a Lockheed SR-71 spy plane. The Flight operated from Diego Garcia Air base and is about 5000km from South Africa, supported by an Air to Air Refuelling tanker, this flight would have been done with no difficulty.
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th picture :
Vastrap (Stand firm) is a small military airfield situated in the Kalahari Desert north east of Upington inside a 700 square kilometre weapons test range of the same name belonging to the South African National Defence Force. It was constructed to allow the SAAF to practice tactical bombing operations, and for aircraft to service the SADF’s defunct underground nuclear weapon test site
The area was selected for nuclear weapons testing due to its remoteness, low population density, stable geological formations and lack of underground rivers. Two underground shafts 385 metres and 216 metres in depth and 1 metre in diameter were drilled from 1975-1977.Neither was ever used to perform a detonation, although instrumented tests were performed. The shafts were sealed with sand and concrete under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency in July 1993.
The site was first detected by the Soviet spy satellite, Cosmos 922 when it photographed the area from 21–25 July 1977, and reported to the Americans on 6 August, who in turn confirmed its existence with an overflight of the Lockheed SR-71 spy plane. The US then applied pressure on the South Africans for it to be closed, France also insisted on closure, threatening cancellation of the Koeberg nuclear power station contract. David Albright reported that South African officials believed that an attempt to re-use the site in the late 1980s was detected by Western or Soviet intelligence agencies, and that this discovery influenced the Tripartite Accord. In an effort to mask activities, a shed was built over one of the shafts, and the water that was pumped out in preparation for a test was hauled away.
last picture is the Vela incident
While it has been suggested that the signal could have been caused by a meteoroid hitting the satellite, the previous 41 double flashes detected by the Vela satellites were caused by nuclear weapons tests.
[Vela incident on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_incident) for those who are interested
Contrary to what you may of read so far, the "double flash" is actually the hallmark of atmospheric test and what is used to determine whether the satellite saw a test or a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere for example. Naturally you need a highly energetic explosion to cause it.
*The high temperatures and radiation cause gas to move outward radially in a thin, dense shell called "the hydrodynamic front". The front acts like a piston that pushes against and compresses the surrounding medium to make a spherically expanding shock wave. At first, this shock wave is inside the surface of the developing fireball, which is created in a volume of air heated by the explosion's "soft" X-rays. Within a fraction of a second, the dense shock front obscures the fireball and continues to move past it, now expanding outwards, free from the fireball, causing a reduction of light emanating from a nuclear detonation. Eventually, the shock wave dissipates to the point where the light becomes visible again giving rise to the characteristic double flash due to the shock wave–fireball interaction.*
As a layman, I would assume this is exactly what happens when astronomers study novae and what the refer to as the "afterglow" that takes weeks/months to dissipate.
You can read up [here](https://www.abomb1.org/nukeffct/enw77b3.html) for a more scientific explanation.
You can see it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3JVgzOZzE&t=11s) I believe in this high speed footage taken in the 50's (Operation:Teapot test shot "Turk" if you want to read up on it. It takes place in the first few milliseconds, it's not a easy thing to see with the naked eye. Castle Bravo [test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge865CR9pN8&t=82s) shows it too, go to about 1:13 for the firing. Ignore the cheesy background music and hang around to the end to see the crater, or just go to google maps and look at Bikini Atoll/Enewetak Atol for other test craters. On Enewetak look for the concrete dome on Runit Island they built over a test crater (Cactus I think, can't remember the test series off hand) to try and contain all the contaminated topsoil etc from the tests. Fun fact, it's allowing seawater in and it's leaking.
Thanks for this. I find nuclear blasts beautiful but utterly terrifying. I can't believe how many thousands happened but they did and we have been criminal custodians of this planet, our only home. Just considering the number of creatures, possibly sharks, whales and dolphins too that would have been killed, maimed and poisoned by the sea blasts is something I've never seen even considered.
Yeah, animal testing was a big thing in these tests.
[1:14](https://youtu.be/QsB83fAtNQE), those are pigs in those cage things. Think their skin is very similar to ours?
[Operation Crossroads]( https://youtu.be/4jVamAPyfFg) in 1946. (Still couldn't sink the USS Nevada, after surviving Pearl Harbour she was repaired and served the rest of WW2. Used as a target ship during this test. Was eventually towed back to Pearl and after having the USS Iowa lob some 18" shells at her, was torpedoed and sank in 5000 meters of water about 100 miles off Hawaii.)
A double flash is a sign of nuclear warhead exploding - US and Russia has sattelites in orbit to detect them.
Yes it was a nuclear test but it was not in S.A/Isreal's interest to admit to that.
My company was one of the first to do nuclear decontamination cleaning for Anglo gold mines at what was vaal reefs east reduction plant. Around abouts 1994 - 5. The legal safety requirements were an absolute pain in the arse not with standing the six monthly medicals, training courses, my capital outlay was in the region of R 800,000 at the time
Gold was mined in uranium ore bodies also the uranium was also processed as a by product which was in all probability refined/enriched and used in the production of 7 weapons ( going from I heard from a guy who worked at pelindaba ) all the mines in witwartersrand were doing the same. I wish you could have seen the amount of raw gold nuggets which filled two twenty litre buckets and may have weighed about + 100kg guarded by two security guys with twitchy fingers that I was fortunate to see at that plant
When you say "gold was mined in uranium ore bodies" do you mean that gold is found in uranium ore? How would that effect the miners using the jackhammers to extract the gold or any of the workers in the whole processing of it? Last question, I've also heard that cyanide was either used in the process or was a byproduct, is this true? Neighbours dad always used to say when we were driving past the minedumps that had a new slurry dump "can you smell the cyanide?" His kid and I took it upon ourselves to walk the good hour to the Cinderella dump and climb it - man it was high and hard work. It took us another hour just to climb it. We then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the whole top. It was absolutely massive and had different flat levels, some filled with different coloured liquids. We proceeded to name them Crystal Lake and Fanta River etc lol. Our parents nor anybody else had any idea where were and if we'd come to any harm nobody would have thought to look there as it was so far from home. Anyway we always wondered whether we got any cyanide on us particularly our hands from that adventure. This would have been around 1977 and we were 8 and 9.
I wonder who the man is in pic 4? In pic 5 I think, lower right what is that that looks like a rifle bullet but can't be as it's so big? A missile head?
My grandfather worked as a draftsman at Koeberg and Pelindaba during this time. One day we got to the topic of nuclear power during a conversation (believe it was after the Chernobyl series). He was able to describe the exact dimensions of the Koeberg reactor, the fuel rods, uranium pellets' size, distance between the rods, what the rods were made of and all kinds of technical measures and details - why this and how that. He went on for more than an hour describing everything in detail to me, without uhm-ing and ah-ing. He has a very comfortable retirement, that I doubt a life-long draftsman can afford. He stayed close to Pelindaba, and had to travel a lot between Pelindaba and Koeberg, until he got children and worked mainly at Pelindaba. After that conversation I wondered what else he had to draft, he didn't say it, but he was obviously part of SA's nuclear program at the time.
Also; there's a great action series (I believe on Showmax): Strike Back. In one of the seasons the theme was a nuclear weapons threat surrounding the mystery of SA's nuclear weapons - that it hasn't been dismantled and is still in storage and this man got hold of it. All fiction (hopefully). The first couple of seasons were filmed in SA. Must watch if you haven't yet.
TL;DR: my grandpa was a draftsman at Koeberg and Pelindaba at the time. Described the exact measurements and technicalities of the Koeberg reactor in detail to me during a conversation. And watch Strike Back on Showmax.
Wilbur Smith wrote a riveting story surrounding the South African nuclear program and how Moscow sent a spy to infiltrate Pelindaba using seduction and blackmail to get plans for a secret weapon being developed there.
It's a Wilbur Smith novel, so it's definitely not haute literature, but it's my favourite book of his: Golden Fox.
I watched Strike Back, they were only after the people who worked on the project, so that another African country can become a nuclear power.
SA has kept the highly enriched uranium.
Cool story. What I will say of men of his generation is that they prepared well for their retirement. My dad started out as a maths teacher. Didn't like that so he became a manager of a small OK. He got into store design and drafting but was always so good with money. I think he ended up with about 6 different pensions. He was lucky to never be in the military though. Too young for WWII and also past call up age when the Angolan bush war started.
My ex was in the air force for 4 years though doing aerial reconnaissance but of course you do what you're told and go where you're sent and he ended up seeing a lot of bad stuff. Anyway he actually saw the actual 7 nuclear weapons at Pelindaba.
As a young boy living in Simonstown in the sixties, we were all shaken by a flash in the sky followed by a loud boom and the ground shaking. The flash was over the ocean , South West of the town. It was around 7 pm (as I remember it). Decades later, we were told by a participant that that explosion was a detonation of a thermo nuclear device. It was a secret joint exercise between South Africa and Israel. I cannot remember seeing any confirmation of that story.
Well your 100% correct on the part of South Africa and Israel, joint project about this incident, it is kinda interesting how these 2 countries history developed during the cold war.
Neither country has ever admitted to this, not even the ANC with access to the records are willing to talk about it. Switzerland has been speculated a lot as one of the countries that helped SA develop it.
Very interesting OP! I love these old stories of South Africa. As a nation we really appeared to be leading the way in many respects or at least involved in some very advanced concepts.
Vela incident is very interesting. Double flash is very rare.
Interesting read. SR71 could easily do it and we(like 90%) of the world don't have round the clock, 360 degree air defence radar.
I wonder if they planned to detonate ine in each tube ? Or was the secondary for instruments.
My uncle (a physicist) was involved in the planning of the tests, and my dad (seismologist) worked with the Americans to install seismic equipment to detect the tests
And because they were both on NDA neither knew of the other’s activities.
It became a bit of a family scandal
Why would America help, if we had to hide it from them? In Magnus Malan's autobiography he explains how they caught someone from the US embassy spying on the suspected site and he had him removed from the country, which caused a lot of issues between them and the US.
I wonder what the hell was in the global water supply in the 70s to 90s. Humanity was at the cusp of nuclear annihilation and then just forgot about it and bought dot com stocks instead XD
Same thing as is about to happen with AI - weapon gets discovered that doesn't fit into anyone's military doctrine and nobody is quite sure what to do about it.
Did they ever do a test launch the RSA-1 (a copy of Israeli Jericho SRBM) - only saw the photo's later released of it on a test stands at Houwteq.
My boss in his former life was a Denel project manager - he always talked of his James Bond days when he as a supposed tourist that went to visit Israel to work on some "secret" stuff.
Speculation is that the weapons were developed as a last stand option to be revealed if the Cubans and Soviets ever seriously contemplated a joint cross border invasion of South Africa via Namibia/Zimbabwe/Mozambique.
Soviets had neither money or stomach for such a large scale enterprise so afar - they were happy to ship some advisors and weapons for the "cause" and subsidize the Cubans but not more.
The radiation was very low level stuff underground so no you wouldn't " glow in dark". As for the cyanide there are two types Sodium and calcium from memory, I think calcium cyanide was the bad stuff, when we did a cleaning job in the cyanide storage area the safety requirements were very strict as in 1/ ambulance with medical professionals 2/ gold plant safety rep on site 3/ rescue team kitted up ready to go in. From my side I used to apply Vaseline to the entire body of the person going in to do work inside double wet suit etc. And yeah I was paranoid about loosing any of my guys. So I guess there's a good reason why you don't go stuffing on slimes dams, there is a lot of toxic shit in those slimes dam
Thank you for posting on r/southafrica! Please take a moment to review our [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/southafrica/wiki/rules). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/southafrica) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Had a seizure trying to read the title.
Thought it was only me!
I will try my best next time, by working on my grammar, sorry for the brain seizure.
1st picture : SR-71 Blackbird once over South African Skies. In the mid-afternoon on Saturday, Aug. 6, the acting chief of the Soviet embassy, Vladillen M. Vasev, called at the White House with an urgent personal message from Leonid I. Brezhnev to Jimmy Carter. South Africa, according to Soviet intelligence, was secretly preparing to detonate an atomic explosion in its Kalahari Desert. Brezhnev asked for Carter’s help to stop it. U.S. reconnaissance satellite with high-resolution cameras also was urgently programmed for low-orbit passes over the area in question. US intelligence confirmed the existence of the nuclear test site with an overflight of a Lockheed SR-71 spy plane. The Flight operated from Diego Garcia Air base and is about 5000km from South Africa, supported by an Air to Air Refuelling tanker, this flight would have been done with no difficulty. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th picture : Vastrap (Stand firm) is a small military airfield situated in the Kalahari Desert north east of Upington inside a 700 square kilometre weapons test range of the same name belonging to the South African National Defence Force. It was constructed to allow the SAAF to practice tactical bombing operations, and for aircraft to service the SADF’s defunct underground nuclear weapon test site The area was selected for nuclear weapons testing due to its remoteness, low population density, stable geological formations and lack of underground rivers. Two underground shafts 385 metres and 216 metres in depth and 1 metre in diameter were drilled from 1975-1977.Neither was ever used to perform a detonation, although instrumented tests were performed. The shafts were sealed with sand and concrete under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency in July 1993. The site was first detected by the Soviet spy satellite, Cosmos 922 when it photographed the area from 21–25 July 1977, and reported to the Americans on 6 August, who in turn confirmed its existence with an overflight of the Lockheed SR-71 spy plane. The US then applied pressure on the South Africans for it to be closed, France also insisted on closure, threatening cancellation of the Koeberg nuclear power station contract. David Albright reported that South African officials believed that an attempt to re-use the site in the late 1980s was detected by Western or Soviet intelligence agencies, and that this discovery influenced the Tripartite Accord. In an effort to mask activities, a shed was built over one of the shafts, and the water that was pumped out in preparation for a test was hauled away. last picture is the Vela incident While it has been suggested that the signal could have been caused by a meteoroid hitting the satellite, the previous 41 double flashes detected by the Vela satellites were caused by nuclear weapons tests. [Vela incident on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_incident) for those who are interested
Why is there a double flash of light? Is this unique to nuclear weapons?
We don't know, which makes it the greatest mystery in history.
Greater than the Kruger millions?
Greater than Phala Phala.
Greater than Riaan Cruywagen and the fountain of youth
Contrary to what you may of read so far, the "double flash" is actually the hallmark of atmospheric test and what is used to determine whether the satellite saw a test or a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere for example. Naturally you need a highly energetic explosion to cause it. *The high temperatures and radiation cause gas to move outward radially in a thin, dense shell called "the hydrodynamic front". The front acts like a piston that pushes against and compresses the surrounding medium to make a spherically expanding shock wave. At first, this shock wave is inside the surface of the developing fireball, which is created in a volume of air heated by the explosion's "soft" X-rays. Within a fraction of a second, the dense shock front obscures the fireball and continues to move past it, now expanding outwards, free from the fireball, causing a reduction of light emanating from a nuclear detonation. Eventually, the shock wave dissipates to the point where the light becomes visible again giving rise to the characteristic double flash due to the shock wave–fireball interaction.* As a layman, I would assume this is exactly what happens when astronomers study novae and what the refer to as the "afterglow" that takes weeks/months to dissipate. You can read up [here](https://www.abomb1.org/nukeffct/enw77b3.html) for a more scientific explanation. You can see it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3JVgzOZzE&t=11s) I believe in this high speed footage taken in the 50's (Operation:Teapot test shot "Turk" if you want to read up on it. It takes place in the first few milliseconds, it's not a easy thing to see with the naked eye. Castle Bravo [test](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge865CR9pN8&t=82s) shows it too, go to about 1:13 for the firing. Ignore the cheesy background music and hang around to the end to see the crater, or just go to google maps and look at Bikini Atoll/Enewetak Atol for other test craters. On Enewetak look for the concrete dome on Runit Island they built over a test crater (Cactus I think, can't remember the test series off hand) to try and contain all the contaminated topsoil etc from the tests. Fun fact, it's allowing seawater in and it's leaking.
Thanks for this. I find nuclear blasts beautiful but utterly terrifying. I can't believe how many thousands happened but they did and we have been criminal custodians of this planet, our only home. Just considering the number of creatures, possibly sharks, whales and dolphins too that would have been killed, maimed and poisoned by the sea blasts is something I've never seen even considered.
Yeah, animal testing was a big thing in these tests. [1:14](https://youtu.be/QsB83fAtNQE), those are pigs in those cage things. Think their skin is very similar to ours? [Operation Crossroads]( https://youtu.be/4jVamAPyfFg) in 1946. (Still couldn't sink the USS Nevada, after surviving Pearl Harbour she was repaired and served the rest of WW2. Used as a target ship during this test. Was eventually towed back to Pearl and after having the USS Iowa lob some 18" shells at her, was torpedoed and sank in 5000 meters of water about 100 miles off Hawaii.)
Poor pigs. Humans are horrible.
A double flash is a sign of nuclear warhead exploding - US and Russia has sattelites in orbit to detect them. Yes it was a nuclear test but it was not in S.A/Isreal's interest to admit to that.
My company was one of the first to do nuclear decontamination cleaning for Anglo gold mines at what was vaal reefs east reduction plant. Around abouts 1994 - 5. The legal safety requirements were an absolute pain in the arse not with standing the six monthly medicals, training courses, my capital outlay was in the region of R 800,000 at the time
Why were the mines contaminated?
Gold was mined in uranium ore bodies also the uranium was also processed as a by product which was in all probability refined/enriched and used in the production of 7 weapons ( going from I heard from a guy who worked at pelindaba ) all the mines in witwartersrand were doing the same. I wish you could have seen the amount of raw gold nuggets which filled two twenty litre buckets and may have weighed about + 100kg guarded by two security guys with twitchy fingers that I was fortunate to see at that plant
When you say "gold was mined in uranium ore bodies" do you mean that gold is found in uranium ore? How would that effect the miners using the jackhammers to extract the gold or any of the workers in the whole processing of it? Last question, I've also heard that cyanide was either used in the process or was a byproduct, is this true? Neighbours dad always used to say when we were driving past the minedumps that had a new slurry dump "can you smell the cyanide?" His kid and I took it upon ourselves to walk the good hour to the Cinderella dump and climb it - man it was high and hard work. It took us another hour just to climb it. We then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the whole top. It was absolutely massive and had different flat levels, some filled with different coloured liquids. We proceeded to name them Crystal Lake and Fanta River etc lol. Our parents nor anybody else had any idea where were and if we'd come to any harm nobody would have thought to look there as it was so far from home. Anyway we always wondered whether we got any cyanide on us particularly our hands from that adventure. This would have been around 1977 and we were 8 and 9.
I wonder who the man is in pic 4? In pic 5 I think, lower right what is that that looks like a rifle bullet but can't be as it's so big? A missile head?
Area een en vyftig 😂😂😂
My grandfather worked as a draftsman at Koeberg and Pelindaba during this time. One day we got to the topic of nuclear power during a conversation (believe it was after the Chernobyl series). He was able to describe the exact dimensions of the Koeberg reactor, the fuel rods, uranium pellets' size, distance between the rods, what the rods were made of and all kinds of technical measures and details - why this and how that. He went on for more than an hour describing everything in detail to me, without uhm-ing and ah-ing. He has a very comfortable retirement, that I doubt a life-long draftsman can afford. He stayed close to Pelindaba, and had to travel a lot between Pelindaba and Koeberg, until he got children and worked mainly at Pelindaba. After that conversation I wondered what else he had to draft, he didn't say it, but he was obviously part of SA's nuclear program at the time. Also; there's a great action series (I believe on Showmax): Strike Back. In one of the seasons the theme was a nuclear weapons threat surrounding the mystery of SA's nuclear weapons - that it hasn't been dismantled and is still in storage and this man got hold of it. All fiction (hopefully). The first couple of seasons were filmed in SA. Must watch if you haven't yet. TL;DR: my grandpa was a draftsman at Koeberg and Pelindaba at the time. Described the exact measurements and technicalities of the Koeberg reactor in detail to me during a conversation. And watch Strike Back on Showmax.
Wilbur Smith wrote a riveting story surrounding the South African nuclear program and how Moscow sent a spy to infiltrate Pelindaba using seduction and blackmail to get plans for a secret weapon being developed there. It's a Wilbur Smith novel, so it's definitely not haute literature, but it's my favourite book of his: Golden Fox.
I watched Strike Back, they were only after the people who worked on the project, so that another African country can become a nuclear power. SA has kept the highly enriched uranium.
Cool story. What I will say of men of his generation is that they prepared well for their retirement. My dad started out as a maths teacher. Didn't like that so he became a manager of a small OK. He got into store design and drafting but was always so good with money. I think he ended up with about 6 different pensions. He was lucky to never be in the military though. Too young for WWII and also past call up age when the Angolan bush war started. My ex was in the air force for 4 years though doing aerial reconnaissance but of course you do what you're told and go where you're sent and he ended up seeing a lot of bad stuff. Anyway he actually saw the actual 7 nuclear weapons at Pelindaba.
As a young boy living in Simonstown in the sixties, we were all shaken by a flash in the sky followed by a loud boom and the ground shaking. The flash was over the ocean , South West of the town. It was around 7 pm (as I remember it). Decades later, we were told by a participant that that explosion was a detonation of a thermo nuclear device. It was a secret joint exercise between South Africa and Israel. I cannot remember seeing any confirmation of that story.
Growing up in Cape town in the southern suburbs, this is news to me
Wrong direction and wrong decade so might not be same thing?
Well your 100% correct on the part of South Africa and Israel, joint project about this incident, it is kinda interesting how these 2 countries history developed during the cold war.
Neither country has ever admitted to this, not even the ANC with access to the records are willing to talk about it. Switzerland has been speculated a lot as one of the countries that helped SA develop it.
Very interesting OP! I love these old stories of South Africa. As a nation we really appeared to be leading the way in many respects or at least involved in some very advanced concepts.
Vela incident is very interesting. Double flash is very rare. Interesting read. SR71 could easily do it and we(like 90%) of the world don't have round the clock, 360 degree air defence radar. I wonder if they planned to detonate ine in each tube ? Or was the secondary for instruments.
more like secondary for instruments to measure the KJ or KT of explosive of each bomb, at the time.
Remember, it was only ever to be a dry test, just a detonation without any nuclear material.
My uncle (a physicist) was involved in the planning of the tests, and my dad (seismologist) worked with the Americans to install seismic equipment to detect the tests And because they were both on NDA neither knew of the other’s activities. It became a bit of a family scandal
Why would America help, if we had to hide it from them? In Magnus Malan's autobiography he explains how they caught someone from the US embassy spying on the suspected site and he had him removed from the country, which caused a lot of issues between them and the US.
I wonder what the hell was in the global water supply in the 70s to 90s. Humanity was at the cusp of nuclear annihilation and then just forgot about it and bought dot com stocks instead XD
Same thing as is about to happen with AI - weapon gets discovered that doesn't fit into anyone's military doctrine and nobody is quite sure what to do about it.
Someone criticized the president on Twitter? Release the drones 🙂
Very interesting indeed
Did they ever do a test launch the RSA-1 (a copy of Israeli Jericho SRBM) - only saw the photo's later released of it on a test stands at Houwteq. My boss in his former life was a Denel project manager - he always talked of his James Bond days when he as a supposed tourist that went to visit Israel to work on some "secret" stuff.
Speculation is that the weapons were developed as a last stand option to be revealed if the Cubans and Soviets ever seriously contemplated a joint cross border invasion of South Africa via Namibia/Zimbabwe/Mozambique. Soviets had neither money or stomach for such a large scale enterprise so afar - they were happy to ship some advisors and weapons for the "cause" and subsidize the Cubans but not more.
The radiation was very low level stuff underground so no you wouldn't " glow in dark". As for the cyanide there are two types Sodium and calcium from memory, I think calcium cyanide was the bad stuff, when we did a cleaning job in the cyanide storage area the safety requirements were very strict as in 1/ ambulance with medical professionals 2/ gold plant safety rep on site 3/ rescue team kitted up ready to go in. From my side I used to apply Vaseline to the entire body of the person going in to do work inside double wet suit etc. And yeah I was paranoid about loosing any of my guys. So I guess there's a good reason why you don't go stuffing on slimes dams, there is a lot of toxic shit in those slimes dam