Vaalputs, Northern Cape

Vaalputs is the only South African radioactive waste-disposal facility, called the Vaalputs Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility, operated by NECSA. The facility is located about 100 km south-east of Springbok, in the Northern Cape. It covers an area of approximately 10,000 hectare, measuring 16,5 km from east to west and 6,5 km from north to south at its narrowest point.Approximately 1,000 hectare is occupied by sites developed for low- and intermediate-level waste, an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility, housing, roads, power lines and an airstrip. Vaalputs lies smothered between the Namaqualand in the west and the Bushmanland in the east.During 1978 a programme to select a suitable site for the disposal of nuclear waste was commenced over large parts of South Africa. The programme leader had to keep a variety of socio-economic and geology related parameters in mind. Pioneer investigations indicated that the Northern Cape was the most feasible area. Supplementary studies showed that a place approximately 100 km southeast of Springbok was ideally suited for the disposal of low- and intermediate-level wastes. In 1983 three farms were acquired by the state on behalf of the NECSA, which now constitute the Vaalputs Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility. The first low- and intermediate-level waste arrived from Koeberg in October 1986.