Thokozile Kabini was a pre-doctoral fellow at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security from 2023 to 2025. She now works for the International Atomic Energy Agency. She holds a master’s degree in Nuclear Physics from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, where she specialized in nuclear and radiation science. She holds undergraduate degrees in physical sciences and in international relations. In 2012 she joined the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation and in 2014 became a nuclear forensics analyst, with a focus on the analysis of nuclear materials using non-destructive techniques. Thokozile also worked as part of the team at the South African radionuclide laboratory responsible for analyzing radionuclide samples from international monitoring stations supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. She received training in nuclear forensics measurement at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a Robin Copeland Memorial Fellowship for next-generation women from the global south interested in nonproliferation and international security.
Research Interests
Thokozile’s research interests at SGS revolved around the intersection of nuclear forensics, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and issues related to disarmament and nonproliferation. Her work explored the application of nuclear forensics approaches, methods, and tools, including drone-mounted sensors, to survey environmental radiological contamination of past nuclear weapon test sites in the context of the TPNW. This work combines nuclear science, environmental studies, international law, national regulations on radiation safety and policy analysis to address the environmental legacies of nuclear weapons testing. She also is interested in nuclear forensics and environmental sampling as a tool for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation verification under the TPNW and more broadly.
Publications
Reassessing Radiological Contamination and Hazards in the French Nuclear Test Site in Algeria, (to appear in “Africans Against the Bomb”, edited by Vincent Intondi and Olamide Samuel, forthcoming).
Reassessing Radiological Contamination and Hazards in the French Nuclear Test Site in Algeria; Journal of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament (submitted).
“Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Assess Radiological Contamination at the Algerian Sahara Nuclear Test Sites” Non-proliferation Review (submitted).
E. Njoroge, J. T. Kabini, M. Mlambo; T. Ntsoane, T. Hlatshwayo, and J. Malherbe, Investigation of Solid-State Reactions of Pd Films on Single-Crystal 6H-SiC, IEE Conference Proceedings 2018, Open Innovations Conference, October 2018.
Talks
Reassessing Radiological Contamination and Hazards in the French Nuclear Test Site in Algeria, Africans Against the bomb conference, Pretoria, 25-26 September 2024.
Strengthening Security Through Nuclear Forensics, Princeton School on Science and Global Security, October 12–17, 2023.
ZAL14 Post Certification Challenges and Operational Experiences, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization Radionuclide Laboratories Workshop, April 2023.
Nuclear Security Coordinated Research Project (J02013), International Atomic Energy Agency July 2022. A comparison of gamma spectrometry detectors for analysis of IMS samples, CTBT: Science and Technology conference SnT2021, July 2021.
IAEA Introduction to Nuclear Forensics meeting, The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation, November 2019. Technical Meeting on Nuclear Forensics and Cooperation with African States, Country Overview: South Africa. International Atomic Energy Agency, July 2017.