South Africa is the only country in Africa with an operational commercial nuclear power plant, called Koeberg near Cape Town, Western Cape. The spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is disposed of at Vaalputs Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility in the Northern Cape.

Inspiration drawn from childhood memories

Prof Jo-Ansie Van Wyk says she grew up near the radioactive waste disposal facility, Vaalputs in rural Namaqualand, adding that the facility was established during her primary school years, during which she would grow a fascination about how nuclear energy operates.

Prof Jo-Ansie Van Wyk

Continuing, Van Wyk states that her mother completed her tertiary education at Unisa, majoring in Psychology and History. And so, when she was a child, together with her siblings, they became captivated by her history textbooks, particularly topics on the Second World War and the first atomic bomb attack on Japan, which further contributed to her curiosity and knowledge about politics and nuclear energy. "These childhood memories kindled my interest in international politics and nuclear energy - a focus area that subsequently developed into the establishment of the academic field, Critical Nuclear Humanities," she explained.  

Her journey with Unisa dates back to 1997 when she joined the oldest Department of Political Sciences in South Africa (established in 1946).

While her career path was inspired by her childhood surroundings near Vaalputs, her career growth has been shaped by an array of opportunities offered by Unisa. These include professional growth and research support, which have added to her personal and academic growth (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo-Ansie-Van-Wyk).

Reflecting on her career, Van Wyk said, "My departmental colleagues remain such a gift due to their humanity, intellectual wealth and commitment to our university and students."    

Nuclear energy, its role and impact on society 

Van Wyk’s research projects delve into nuclear necropolitics ("a sociopolitical theory of the use of social and political power to dictate how some people may live and how some must die") in South Africa.

She has published on South Africa’s nuclear diplomacy before and after 1994, and nuclear art in South Africa, where she analysed South African artist’s expression of nuclear energy, human engagement with it and its impact on society.

In addition to these value add-ons, she has signed a ten-year contract with the publisher Routledge to produce a series on Critical Nuclear Humanities. She has also been approached by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), for whom she has produced a policy paper on the role of the African Continental Free Trade Area in preventing nuclear weapons proliferation in Africa.

While her research on nuclear energy predates the formalisation of the 10 Unisa Catalytic Niche Areas, which include energy as one of the identified areas, her contributions include the publication of a weekly online newsletter, Nuclear Trends South Africa (https://joansievanwyk.academia.edu/research#nucleartrendssouthafrica).  

The newsletter seeks to inform South Africans about nuclear-related science and policy developments, especially as the government has decided to extend the operational life of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to 2044, replace the country's research reactor, SAFARI-I at Pelindaba, and its consideration of the extension of South Africa's nuclear power production.

She has also published an online series directed at the South African public to create awareness about nuclear energy.

Furthermore, Van Wyk also boasts a photographic project, Radioactive Road that traces life and the environment along the N7 and R355, where the radioactive waste produced by the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station is transported for disposal at Vaalputs. "The series documentary is one aspect of nuclear necropolitics in South Africa of which I hope to one day have an exhibition in an art gallery," she said.

Nuclear necropolitics 

South Africa used to have a nuclear weapons programme that produced at least six nuclear weapons. The programme was formulated in Pretoria and was implemented at the Pelindaba complex, west of Atteridgeville and the greater Pretoria.

While the programme was terminated and dismantled between 1989 and 1993, Van Wyk’s fascination by the idea of Pretoria as a Nuclear City – academic parlance for cities where nuclear weapons were produced – has inspired her most recent work on nuclear necropolitics in Pretoria.

In 2024, she presented a 13-week radio series, Die Bom, on the SABC radio channel, RSG, on the history of South Africa's nuclear weapons programme.

"I have at least three articles under review. The first one is on Jan Smuts and the dawn of the nuclear era, the second one is on the heritagisation of South Africa's nuclear past, and thirdly, the role of the World Campaign against Military and Nuclear Collaboration with South Africa (1979-1991), which was established and led by the African National Congress (ANC) stalwart, Abdul Minty," said Van Wyk.

The world campaign had a significant impact on international public opinion on sanctions against South Africa and exposing apartheid South Africa's nuclear weapons programme.

In relation to the Critical Nuclear Humanities book series, Van Wyk is completing a manuscript on the origins of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant, the "nuclear Bantustan", the so-called Coloured city Atlantis that was established north of the power station, and all the accompanying political intrigues.

These include, for example, the ANC's bombing of Koeberg in 1982, sanctions, sanctions busting, South Africa's nuclear colony in France, and Robben Island as a designated nuclear fall-out monitoring station during the construction of the power station, and its nuclear necropolitical afterlife.

Van Wyk remains academically and personally invested in the nuclear necropolitics of Vaalputs. "I have published an article on the art work, Study for the ‘Vaalputs Madonna’, by Helmut Starcke (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043389.2024.2430075), and am now working on Vaalputs and its 16 adjoining communities as a heterotopic space."

Having visited and been exposed to South Africa’s nuclear energy installations such as Pelindaba, Koeberg and Vaalputs, Van Wyk’s informed understanding of the country’s nuclear history, nuclear physics and nuclear energy, through her research, continues to have an impact on society.

* By Mpho Moloele, PR and Communications, Department of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation