Assault on Pelindaba | 60 Minutes Archive
In a Nutshell
In 2007, armed intruders breached Pelindaba's 10,000-volt fence and security systems in South Africa, reaching the emergency control room at the nuclear plant storing over 1,000 pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) capable of building multiple atomic bombs; two groups attacked simultaneously, one assaulting staff and shooting witness Anton Gerber while security took up to 24 minutes to respond. South African officials dismissed it as random burglary despite evidence of sophisticated planning, including disabling alarms and cameras, prompting expert concerns over potential insider help and terrorist motives to steal HEU for a crude bomb. Multiple investigations stalled, with no arrests, highlighting severe security lapses at this "national key point."
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The assault on Pelindaba would make a hell of a movie, but it's a thriller that is all too real, with consequences that might have threatened the world. It was a daring break-in at a heavily guarded nuclear plant that holds enough weapons-grade uranium to build a dozen atomic bombs. The story is little known, but after months of reporting, it can be told for the first time through the eyes of the only witnesses. What happened at Pelindaba is the kind of thing that keeps Presidents awake at night.
Pelindaba is nestled in the African bush, not far from the capital of South Africa. This is where the former apartheid regime secretly built nuclear weapons. In the 1990s, South Africa chose to disarm. The bombs were dismantled. But the highly enriched uranium (HEU), the fuel for the bombs, is still here. South Africa assures the world that Pelindaba is a fortress.
Last year, on the night of November 7th, Pelindaba was the scene of the boldest raid ever attempted on a site holding bomb-grade uranium. It happened just after 1 o'clock at night. Anton Gerber has worked at Pelindaba for 30 years. He's chief of the plant's emergency control center. He was in the control room when masked men broke in.
There's a crack in the door, and I looked through this, and I saw this four armed gunmen entering the passages. It's coming straight to us in the control room. You could see that they were carrying handguns? Yeah. All four of them? All four of them.
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