Nuke Facility Raid An Inside Job?

Eyewitness Talks To 60 Minutes About Brazen Assault On South African Nuclear Facility

(CBS)  The assault on Pelindaba would make quite 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, 60 Minutes can tell the tale, for the first time, through the eyes of the one man who stopped the plot. What happened at Pelindaba is the kind of thing that keeps presidents awake at night.

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Pelindaba is nestled in the African bush, not far from the capital of South Africa. It 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, known as HEU - the fuel for the bombs - is still there. South Africa assures the world that Pelindaba is a fortress. But, last year, on the night of Nov. 7, it was the scene of the boldest raid ever attempted on a site holding bomb grade uranium.

"It happened just after one o’clock at night. We heard a sound inside the building," remembers Anton Gerber, who has worked at Pelindaba for 30 years and is the 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 is coming straight to us in the control room."

Gerber says all four were armed.

The men had breached a 10,000 volt fence, passed security cameras, and walked three quarters of a mile to the control room that monitors alarms and responds to emergencies. Gerber called the security office, just three minutes away.

"I immediately said to them they must come and help us. We're under attack. There's four armed men inside our building. The first guy who stepped into the office, he said to me, 'Why do you phone?' He was shouting at me, 'Why do you phone? Why do you phone?'" Gerber remembers. "And I was still so surprised, you know. My first words to them, 'Is this a joke?'"

The only other employee in the control room was Ria Meiring. "And he grabbed me at my hair and pull me out. And he put a gun to my head while the other three guys were fighting with Anton," she remembers.

But the attack on the control room was just the start. A second group of gunmen, on the other side of the plant, was cutting through the fence and opened fire on a guard.

Asked if he thinks the gunmen were after the HEU, Matthew Bunn of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government tells correspondent Scott Pelley, "That's certainly the most valuable single thing that's at that site."

Bunn has studied the attack and has written a classified report for the government on atomic security. He says highly enriched uranium is extremely difficult to make, and would be worth millions of dollars on the black market. And if terrorists get a hold of it, it would not be hard to build a crude atomic bomb. "Making a nuclear bomb with highly enriched uranium basically involves slamming two pieces together at high speed. That's really all there is to it," he explains.

Asked how much highly enriched uranium a terrorist group would need to build a weapon, Bunn says, "The amount of highly enriched uranium metal would basically fit into the cans of a six pack."

And handling the material, according to Bunn, isn’t very dangerous. "Unfortunately not. Highly enriched uranium is only very weakly radioactive. You can handle it with your hands."

Pelindaba holds more than a thousand pounds of HEU, and it uses some of it to make medical products. South Africa calls the plant is a "national key point," a facility with the highest security.

"This is the first time that this has ever happened on site," says Ari Van Der Bijl, the general manager.

Van Der Bijl brought 60 Minutes to the place where the gunmen got through the electric fence.

[bear8819-2009]

Regarding the disabling or the fence controller alarm by "cutting the cable", sophisticated alarms constantly communicate with sensors, so cutting or shorting will trigger the alarm. They can only be defeated by monitoring the communication and building something to emulate it. Clearly not possible in this case, suggesting security is primitive.

[rgheard]

As these sort of armed robberies are common in South Africa I think that it is stretching the point to try and link the invasion of the perimeter fence with nuclear terrorism. The probable reason for heading for the Emergency Centre is that there are many computers there and the theft of large numbers of computers from Corporate organisations is very common.

[mrvolleyba11]

Any small town ''''Barney Fife'''' can have automatic access to a nuke plant under 10 CFR 73.
Posted by usnrcmoron

Bu11sh*t, NO local police have "AUTOMATIC" access to a nuclear plant or facility. They may have responsibilities in case of an incident or attack at or near the facility but blanket or automatic access is not given to ANYBODY!!! Cops/police do not even have "automatic" or "blanket" access to military installations and a nuclear facility has even more restriction.

[inketolstoy]

And handling the material, according to Bunn, isn%u2019t very dangerous. "Unfortunately not. Highly enriched uranium is only very weakly radioactive. You can handle it with your hands."

Until you die very slowly twenty years later from cancer caused by exposure from the uranium. Too many people in this country are learning science from movies like the incredible Hulk.

[usnrcmoron]

This could easily happen to a U.S. commercial nuclear power plant or other commercial plant such as the 2 which make heu navy fuel. The vulnerability which the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission fails to address is that the local police, who ultimately have responsibility and jurisdiction to neutralize and/or apprehend the intruders, are not subject to adequate background psychological, drug and alcohol checks. Any small town ''Barney Fife'' can have automatic access to a nuke plant under 10 CFR 73, the NRC nuclear security regulations. And for that matter, any domestic terrorist like McVeigh can join the local police force.
Sincerely,
NRC Moron

[sensiblejack]

maybe we should all pitch in and pay for a communications class for the South African government maybe something like "How to not look like a complete idiot when trying to deny the patently obvious"

Armed Burglars tring to steal laptops and copy machines, break into two teams and move to take out the command center after disabling sophisticated security systems.

riiiggghht

They would have been better off just saying no comment... as my mother used to say better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt?

[shakehill]

Anton Gerber is a hero who is being ostracized by his government. How sad. Why didn''t 60m ask him who he thought it was, what nationality, what dialect? He fought with 4 of them, he knows. Once again, not politically correct. SA''s arrogance appalls me.

[bear8819-2009]

Regarding the disabling or the fence controller alarm by "cutting the cable", sophisticated alarms constantly communicate with sensors, so cutting or shorting will trigger the alarm. They can only be defeated by monitoring the communication and building something to emulate it. Clearly not possible in this case, suggesting security is primitive.

[bear8819-2009]

Regarding the disabling or the fence controller alarm by "cutting the cable", sophisticated alarms constantly communicate with sensors, so cutting or shorting will trigger the alarm. They can only be defeated by monitoring the communication and building something to emulate it. Clearly not possible in this case, suggesting security is primitive.

[bear8819-2009]

Regarding the disabling or the fence controller alarm by "cutting the cable", sophisticated alarms constantly communicate with sensors, so cutting or shorting will trigger the alarm. They can only be defeated by monitoring the communication and building something to emulate it. Clearly not possible in this case, suggesting security is primitive.

[tsc307]

Hilarious and Disturbing

Scott Pelley spends the entire segment trying to prove that it would take sophisticated terrorists to pull off an invasion of a weapons-grade nuclear facility, while all the South Africans keep saying that any yokel could do it. Weren%u2019t rolls reversed?

It%u2019s very scary if well-funded and well-organized terrorists can come so close. It is fill-your-underpants, call-the-State-Department TERRIFYING if some hicks can drive by and say %u201Cbet there%u2019s something valuable behind that fence over yonder; let%u2019s rob it%u201D and almost succeed. The South Africans made the strongest case for why they shouldn%u2019t have highly enriched uranium.

[janetla]

This is not only extremely disturbing, but the South African Gov. seems to be trying to treat this as if it is "no big deal" we are counting on them to help protect the entire world from terrorists getting hold of this very dangerous uranium. They not only should be embarrassed, and ashamed, but should swallow their pride and allow the US to aid in protecting it. Oh, and one more thing, I completely believe there were those on the inside being paid off...otherwise it wouldn''t have even been attempted by only 4 people to get through the first security point...my guess is the person paid off for the second security check point decided against being a traitor and decided against endangering the entire world...good reporting 60 minutes and please...keep up the uncomfortable pressure on the South African Government.

[rwsmith29456]

Why should anyone listen to a reporter and a couple of eyewitnesses? It was just like the S. African officials said, "It depends on how you interpret this". Makes a lot of sense to me. Heh, heh, heh. What that really means is "We don''t have to tell anyone about this."

[mikesarcbs]

Why was it never a Headline in my newspaper?
How did "they know what they were doing"?
Why do S.A. officials react so passively?
Why do our officials react so little?
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Either, it was an attempt to test their security,
(I dontblivet),
or, it was a "friendly" nation that bungled the job.
Noticed nobody got killed? Trade Mark of Friendlies.
Did S.A. test an Atom bomb already?
I expect they upgraded security, even if we pay for it, like we did for Russia and elsewhere.

[mikezembill]

THE REPUBLICANS ARE AT IT AGAIN

[robaldrich]

clathrate wrote: ''Actually it sounds more like a Russian mob plot to steal the stuff and sell to the highest bidder, whoever that may be. They''''ve tried for years inside their own country, what''''s to prevent them from going international?''
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Hi again.

The answer to your question is Physics.

You operate from a false premise. While how to build a nuclear bomb is a relatively simple process, actually doing it is complex, exacting, and expensive. The reality is that an entity (countries) with the wherewithal to build an atomic bomb that will actually detonate can enrich its own uranium.

That is why the, alleged, Russian Mob plots are to steal an Atomic Bomb, NOT fissile material.

[btreib]

Give me a break, we''re supposed to believe no weapons grade material was taken? They went to all that trouble and then just walked away?

[wizardjuan]

Yeah..South Africa has always been truthful about what their military has been doing-NOT. I am less worried about S. Africa than what is our country doing about security at Nuclear Power Plants. The state I live in wants to import waste from around the world

[antizion]

"Sounds like an intelligence service wanted an untraceable source of nuclear material for a false flag terror attack and the plant operator was involved.
I would look at those that specialize in false flag attacks - Israel and the US. "--Posted by AntiZion



And since Israel and the US can both produce all the fissionable materials they want without accounting to anybody, why would they need to steal it from South Africa? Duh?

Sound more like desperate Muslims hoping to see those 72 virgin boys they''''re promised when they kill.

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Funny thing about an isotope, they are like a fingerprint and quite traceable. Hope that answers your stupid question/comment.

[cbswhiteout]

I grew up watching Walter Cronkite and 60 minuets with my dad. I believed it all.

Now I watch and wonder "what was the reason for that piece of propaganda?