Nuclear Clue

A blast raises a mystery

A real nuke or a deceptive dud? For years South Africa's many enemies, as well as its few friends, have speculated about the possibility that Pretoria's white apartheid regime might secretly be developing nuclear weapons. South Africa not only has the required technical expertise, but also possesses almost one-fifth of the world's known uranium deposits.

In 1977, Soviet as well as American aerial reconnaissance photos revealed what looked suspiciously like an atomic test site in the Kalahari Desert, a wasteland that covers nearly one-fourth of the country.

Last week Washington produced the strongest clue yet that South Africa might indeed have become the seventh confirmed member of the world's nuclear club.* The State Department announced that it had an ''indication'' that a ''low-yield nuclear explosion occurred on Sept. 22 in an area of the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic'' between South Africa and Antarctica. Officials disclosed that sensing devices on a U.S. satellite had detected the explosion. What the sensors ''saw'' was a flash of light, which dimmed for a microsecond, then became brighter. It was interpreted to be the tell-tale signature of a two-kiloton nuclear blast.

The Government, however, noted that there was ''no corroborating evidence'' of the possible atomic explosion.

Defense officials cautioned that radiation tests of the atmosphere above the stretch of ocean had proved negative. Pretoria flatly denied all. ''Utter nonsense,'' snapped Atomic Energy Board Chairman Jacobus De Villiers. ''The U.S. must learn to get its facts straight,'' chided Foreign Minister Roelof (''Pik'') Botha. ''In an area that size, it could have been anyone.

The Americans might ask the Russians, the Chinese and even themselves.'' At week's end, South Africa announced that it was investigating the possibility that the mysterious flash had been caused by an accident on a Soviet nuclear submarine.

In other world capitals, South Africa's possible possession of the bomb was at least a distant menace to international security. At the U.N., which imposed an embargo on arms shipments to South Africa two years ago, the General Assembly called on Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim to conduct an investigation. In Washington, the House subcommittee on Africa ordered an inquiry. With both Pakistan and Israel also suspected of having or developing a nuclear capacity, the cause of nonproliferation was hardly being served by the prospect that the club was getting less exclusive.

*Countries known to have detonated nuclear devices U.S., U.S.S.R., China, Britian, France and India.

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