South African Nuclear Site Attacked by Gangs

Security officers exchanged gunfire with members of two groups of armed gangs making simultaneous attacks on South Africa’s primary nuclear research site last week, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, Sept. 19).

One guard was wounded in the attack on the Pelindaba Nuclear Research Center, said South African Nuclear Energy Corp. Chief Executive Rob Adam.

The first gang group stole a computer after entering the facility.  The second group retreated under fire from a security guard.

“My sense is that it must have been coordinated but there is no evidence of that yet,” Adam told the South African Press Association.

Adam said the break-ins did not compromise the nuclear research reactor or any other equipment at the facility, but his agency has suspended the site’s security managers as it completes an internal investigation of the incident (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Nov. 13).

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