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> From: dasg...@aol.com > Date: June 17, 2010 12:18:03 AM PDT > To: ramille...@aol.com > Cc: ema...@aol.com, j...@aol.com, jim6...@cwnet.com > Subject: On LBJ's Watch, "Missing" U.S. Uranium Helped Israel Build Its First > Nukes > > 2 years later, remember, President Lyndon B. Johnson looked the > other way when, without provocation, Israel attacked the USS > Liberty, killing 34 American soldiers > > > > Possible Western Pennsylvania link to Israeli nukes boosted > > "The Department of Energy under President Johnson asked the FBI to > investigate the disappearance of 200 pounds of weapons-grade uranium, but the > bureau refused. 13 years later, under President Ford, an investigation > occurred and the Justice Department concluded that certain persons within the > government itself had been 'accessories after the fact.'" > > > By Richard Gazarik, > [Pittsburgh PA] TRIBUNE-REVIEW > June 11, 2010 > http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/s_685551.html > A recently declassified federal report bolsters a long-simmering Cold War > theory that uranium was illegally shipped from an Armstrong County plant in > 1965 to Israel to support its nuclear arms efforts. > > > The once-secret report by the General Accounting Office reveals the FBI > initially refused to investigate the disappearance of 206 pounds of > weapons-grade uranium-235 from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. -- > known as NUMEC -- in Apollo. > > > That refusal led to widespread speculation the uranium, enough to build five > nuclear weapons, was diverted to Israel with covert U.S. government > assistance, the report states. > > > For decades, the fate of the missing NUMEC uranium has been the stuff of > Western Pennsylvania legend. > > > Stories were spun -- some based on fact, some based purely on conjecture -- > and books were penned about how the uranium vanished. > > > The release of this once top-secret report gives the first official glimpse > into the government's handling of "The Apollo Affair." > > > In the late 1970s, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported there > was "no evidence" to conclude the uranium was shipped to Israel. But the > declassified report states that GAO investigators thought the commission's > findings should have been "reconsidered." > > > Dr. Victor Gilinsky, a commissioner with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in > the 1980s, said although the GAO report is not a "smoking gun," it could lead > to the conclusion that the material ended up in Israel. > > > "It does look as if the government didn't want any information coming out on > that," said Gilinsky, who lives in Southern California and works as an energy > consultant. "It looked like it was taken to Israel, but exactly what for, we > just don't know." > > > Uranium-235 can be used in making nuclear weapons because of its ability to > sustain the fission chain reaction of a nuclear explosion. The Department of > Energy sold the material to NUMEC for research purposes. > > > The beginning > > > Pittsburgh chemist Zalman Shapiro, 90, of Oakland founded NUMEC in the early > 1960s on the site of the former Apollo Steel Co. to reprocess spent nuclear > fuel rods. > > > Shapiro did not respond to requests for comment about the declassified > report, but in 1978 he told the House Committee on Interior and Insular > Affairs that no material was diverted from NUMEC. > > > "I have no knowledge or information concerning any such diversion," he said. > "Furthermore, I am not aware of any factual basis for the repeated > allegations that 'material unaccounted for' at NUMEC was caused by an illegal > diversion." > > Attorney Hadrian Katz, a partner in the firm of Arnold & Porter in > Washington, D.C., said he used to work for Shapiro in the 1970s and said > Shapiro is a loyal American and never diverted any uranium to Israel. > > > "Nobody thought Zal Shapiro ever diverted uranium," Katz said. "Nobody who > knew him thought he was involved in a diversion. There's nothing there. There > was no diversion. Zal made real contributions to nuclear research. Zal is a > great American." > > > A staunch supporter of Israel, Shapiro, whose father was an Orthodox rabbi > who lost family in the Holocaust, was a purchasing agent for the Israel > Defense Ministry, the report states. > > > Shapiro, an active inventor who received a patent from the government last > year for a process to make artificial diamonds, maintained the uranium was > "lost" in the processing system. Traces of enriched uranium were discovered > in cracks and crevices of the plant and in air filters, according to the > report. > > Skeptics doubted Shapiro's theory, and in 1966, NUMEC paid the Energy > Department $1.1 million for the missing uranium, the report states. Energy > Department inspectors said the amount of missing uranium actually went well > beyond 206 pounds, according to the report. > > > In the 1960s, inspectors found "significant deficiencies" in how the uranium > was stored, protected and tracked at NUMEC, the report stated. The > deficiencies were so serious that officials recommended the government stop > providing uranium to the company. But the shipments were not halted, the > report states. > > > Inspectors said NUMEC had the largest highly enriched uranium inventory loss > of all U.S. commercial sites, with a 590-pound loss reported before 1968 and > 170 pounds after that year, according to the GAO findings. > > > The investigation > > > Energy officials asked the FBI to investigate NUMEC, but the bureau refused > until 13 years later, when then-President Gerald Ford ordered an > investigation, the report indicates. > > > Gilinsky said that when he was at the regulatory commission, the Justice > Department wrote to the Ford administration that people in government were > "accessories after the fact." > > > Gilinsky said the uranium could have been used to make nuclear weapons, but > had other possible uses. > > He said the Israelis could have used the material at the nation's best-known > reactor at Dimona to produce plutonium-239 and tritium, other materials used > to power nuclear and/or thermonuclear weapons. This method would have enabled > Israeli scientists to produce more weapons than if they had used the enriched > uranium directly. > > > For years, Israel has not officially admitted to having nuclear weapons, but > it is widely believed the country has actively developed a nuclear arsenal > for some time. > > > Dennis Gormley, of the Matthew B. Ridgway Center for International Studies at > the University of Pittsburgh, said he's certain Israel is a nuclear power. > The question is whether its nuclear program was spawned by the missing > uranium from NUMEC, he said. > > > "No question whatsoever that Israel has the bomb," Gormley said. "It's a > 100-percent certainty." > > > He said efforts to trace the missing material during the Carter > administration were stymied by problems such as the Iranian hostage crisis > and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. > > > "Carter didn't need any more on his plate," Gormley said. > > > The FBI and CIA blocked efforts to release the GAO report in 1978, the report > states. Even today, portions were blacked out for security reasons. > > > The haunting legacy > > > NUMEC's legacy has haunted the region for decades. > > > Nearby residents endured 14 years of litigation seeking damages for cancer > and other illnesses they contend were caused by radiation exposure. > > > Federal investigators said NUMEC workers likely faced dangers from radiation > at the plant, but could not determine the level of exposure, according to a > government report. > > > Atlantic Richfield acquired NUMEC in 1967, and Babcock & Wilcox bought it in > 1971. The plant closed in 1983 and was razed. > >
