Global Security Newswire

South African officials have said little about the two attacks in one night against the nation's primary nuclear research facility, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 15).

Four men entered the control room of the Pelindaba facility on Nov. 8, shot an employee in the chest and stole a computer that they were forced to abandon later while under fire from security personnel.  Guards repelled another attack that night by a separate group of men.  None of the attackers have been caught.

There has been little official word on who planned the attacks, how the raiders breached the facility or why they did so, the Times reported.  The Pretoria News was forced to pull an article hinting at a love triangle involving the wounded employee and his fiancée, a supervisor at Pelindaba.  There has been talk, but no proof of terrorism, the Times reported.

The incidents have given ammunition to critics of South Africa's plan to renew its nuclear energy sector through construction of new reactors (see GSN, Sept. 19).

"They've failed to control activities there; they've failed to protect the people," said Mashile Phalane of the environmental and social justice group Earthlife Africa.

The heavily guarded Pelindaba contains a reactor and scientific research center.  It produced up to seven nuclear weapons in the 1970s and 1980s before South Africa ended its military nuclear program.  Some experts believe weapon-grade uranium is still stored at the site (Michael Wines, New York Times, Nov. 15).