Yugoslavia was on its way to make a nuclear bomb, but the pre-war situation of poverty made it impossible, stated the academician Bozidar Matic.
Bozidar Matic was the Yugoslav Minister of Science, and the President of the Federal Committee for Science and Technology in the Government of Branko Mikulic.
According to Jutarnji list, Energoinvest from Sarajevo played the important role in the Yugoslav nuclear program, which was allegedly codenamed “Sutjeska”.
“When the nuclear program started in Energoinvest, I was not familiar with it. I found out about it when I returned in Energoinvest in 1985, after being rector of the University of Sarajevo for 4 years. I was appointed for the Vice-president for research and development. Energoinvest had 11 research centers, six of which were, according to the qualifications back then, at the level of institutes. Even though I was formerly director of one of these institutes and cooperated with the others, I decided to visit each of the institute in order to get closer look at the researches there,” said Matic.
As he said, in one part of the building of ITEN, the Institute for Thermal Engineering and Nuclear Engineering, he was not able to come in.
“They told me: ‘We are working on one project here. According to the contract, the project cannot be seen by anyone other than those who have a permission for it.” When they told me that I cannot access the project they are working on ITEN, I thought, it is linked to the army. I said that they cannot hide from me as the Vice President of Energoinvest what they are doing at the institute. They told me that they agree and that they will ask to put me on the list of those who have access to the project,” said Matic.
In the 1980’s, Yugoslavia was developing two parallel programs: A program was directed towards nuclear weapons, and B program was focused on the civilian use of nuclear energy. Energoinvest played an important role in all of this.
A program in Zagreb was focused on the development of the neutron components of the bomb. A group composed of about ten physicists, electrical engineers and technicians from the Institute “Ruder Boskovic” (IRB) was directly involved in the project. Only two of them knew the real purpose of the project they were working on.
“Energoinvest was a perfect mask. In case that something went public, they would always be able to state that it is research for civilian use of nuclear energy. It should be noted that Energoinvest was a company with 44,000 employees. Industrial part was wearing a technological flag, and it covered the electrical engineering, process equipment and automatics,” explained Matic.
At the conclusion of many that the Yugoslav nuclear program was only a bluff and that country like Yugoslavia could not make a nuclear bomb, Matic says:
“They are totally wrong. It was not a bluff, but a serious program of development of nuclear bomb. First, all scientific capacities of ‘Vinca’, ‘Ruder’ and ‘Josef Stefan’ were included, as well as some others, such as the Institute for nuclear raw materials in Serbia. It should be also taken into account that the agreements with Iraq and Libya were made for the development of rockets. Why would you have a bomb if you do not have a rocket to carry it? The first contract was signed with Iraq on a rocket with a reach of 100 kilometers, which was made. It can be considered as operational weapon,” said Matic.
(Source: avaz.ba)
