The man who blew up a nuclear power station and disappeared

507 points by tw1st3d_m3nt4t 11 days ago on reddit | 21 comments

[OP] tw1st3d_m3nt4t | 11 days ago

In December 1982, South African Rodney Wilkinson walked four bombs into Koeberg power station – the crown jewel of the apartheid state – pulled the pins and then left on his bicycle.

theYogiB | 11 days ago

Brilliant article. Had me hooked throughout.

bighootay | 10 days ago

I read this in a novel--"Come on, impossible." Unreal.

MiseryIndexer | 10 days ago

Yeah, it was excellent

Legohed | 11 days ago

Yes, great read. Thanks

50calPeephole | 11 days ago

Back when banned states couldnt compete in the Olympics at all.

IvyGold | 10 days ago

It still happens. That's why you haven't seen the Russians in a bit.

Arkeros | 10 days ago

Russian athletes have participated in every recent Olympic, just under different names. Nothing Russian TV can't change in their broadcast.

IvyGold | 10 days ago

Yeah. Depending on the sport's federation, some are allowed to compete under a neutral flag.

The Russian flag hasn't been seen since Rio or so, I think.

Boring-Flounder-150 | 11 days ago

Wait, he blew up a *nuclear* power station and just vanished? Like, how does that even work...?

atreyal | 11 days ago

Bombs were on a time delay. He walked out and skipped to a different country and they blamed another group for the blast. He wasnt a suspect for years. Article is interesting should read it.

devouredwolf | 11 days ago

Right? So many questions, if only there was a way to get informed. Ah well

Really_McNamington | 10 days ago

Honestly, read it. It's a cracker.

Techhead7890 | 10 days ago

To be fair, this was during construction 2 years before it was operational, so presumably before it was fuelled. It was also a week before Christmas so not many people were around, and nobody died. It was a pain to the apartheid regime and a lot of money on precision machinery to replace, but not a violent act. Thirdly, according to the article he was never suspected - they blamed militants and corporate espionage. This guy appeared to just be some contractor.

BoredBerlin | 10 days ago

I also wondered (great read that article)... If the bombs went hours apart, were there no alerts? The authorities didn't notice an explosion as the place wasn't online?

Awesome that he got across the border. Even later on he kept fighting the regime. As an old colleague of mine would've said "the nuts on this guy..."