South Africa's Bomb kept the world guessing for years. Six-and-a- half nuclear bombs had been secretly built and destroyed, former South African President F.W. de Klerk announced in 1993. No other country has ever voluntarily destroyed its nuclear arsenal.

From 1975 Nic von Wielligh was involved in the production of nuclear weapons material, the dismantling of the nuclear weapons and the provision of evidence of South Africa's bona fides to the international community. The International Atomic Energy Agency declared South Africa's Initial Report to be the most comprehensive and professional that they had ever received. In this book the nuclear physicist and his daughter Lydia von Wielligh-Steyn tell the gripping story of the splitting of the atom and the power it releases. It is an account of ground-breaking research and the scientists responsible; it deals with uranium enrichment, the arms race and South Africa's secret programme.

The Bomb: South Africa's Nuclear Programme is a story of nuclear explosions, espionage, smuggling of nuclear materials and swords that became ploughshares.

Dekades lank het die wereld gegis oor Suid-Afrika en Die Bom. Die land het ses kernbomme in die geheim ontwikkel, maar hulle self vernietig. Geen ander land ter wereld het dit nog ooit gedoen nie. Hierdie boek is vir wetenskaplikes en leke, en lees soos 'n spanningsverhaal. Dit is die volledigste opgaaf van Suid-Afrika se kernwapenvermoe tot dusver, en geskryf deur 'n kernfisikus wat sedert 1975 direk by die proses betrokke was. Saam met sy dogter Lydia von Wielligh-Steyn deel dr. Nic von Wielligh 'n fassinerende verhaal oor die atoommonster en hoe hy getem is.