IN A wooded corner of Kinshasa - through a quagmire once called a road, around collapsed electricity pylons and past university buildings shorn of windows - sits Africa's first nuclear reactor.
It is distinguished by its neatly whitewashed walls and a front door with a lock. But that does not give the more imaginative of Kinshasa's residents much confidence as the city awaits a final showdown between President Mobutu Sese Seko and his rebel foes. Rumours have swept the capital's townships that Mr Mobutu is hatching a diabolical plot to blow up the reactor and radiate the entire city in a final act of nihilism.
Professor Butsana bu Niungu, a nuclear scientist and head of Kinshasa university's physics department, laughs at the thought until he reflects on what it might mean.
"Even if some crazy group blew it up with explosives it could be quite bad but it wouldn't be like an atomic bomb. There would be a cloud of radioactive dust which could kill people, and there's a pool of water in the reactor with lots of radioactivity. If it gets into the water table or the water pipes it could be bad. Unfortunately most of Kinshasa's pipes have lots of holes in them," he said.
"But people are not wrong to be afraid because Mobutu did say: Apres moi, Ie deluge. The big problem is the guys around President Mobutu. If there's a fight for the capital, who knows what they will do."
Kinshasa's reactor is an indirect spin off of the US second World War atomic bomb project. The uranium for the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was mined in what was then the Belgian Congo. After the war, the US rewarded Belgium with its own nuclear centre.
In 1958, when Brussels thought it would hold onto its colony for many years, Belgium built the Kinshasa reactor, the first in Africa. Two years later, Zaire won its independence.
The reactor - updated with a new model in the mid 1970s - is principally used for medical and genetic research. The latest experiments include bombarding corn with neutrons.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna makes yearly inspections and helps to meet the running costs. But it can only offer suggestions and has no authority to shut the reactor down. Still the agency says it is properly maintained. The Zairean staff are not so well cared for. They have not been paid in months.
AFP adds: Zairean rebels have no plans to halt their advance on Kinshasa, the head of a leading group in the rebel alliance said yesterday. "The advance on Kinshasa is ineluctable," Mr Emile Ilunga, president of the National Resistance Council, said in an interview with Belgian television. Alliance forces "are very close to the city" and have moved beyond Kenge, some 200 kilometres to the east.
Asked about the fate of Hutu refugees in eastern Zaire, Mr Ilunga said it was up to the rebels to "ensure their security".