CIA FOUND ISRAEL COULD MAKE BOMB

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060018-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: December 8, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

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WASHINGTON STAR (GREEN LINE - f" t'.-I I ki T G~' 1
Approved For Release 200$0 vgjA-R9fg8-01315R0004 00600 8-6
C !14 ''-/ -
CIA Found
C
Make BUM
Soil, Air Samples` Disclosed
Atomic Capability in 1968,
By Join J. FIalka
we+aifl 0 St stair arft. .
_ CIA agents, using highly so
histi-
p
r
sated equipment, were able to deter-'
mine from Israeli soil and Ads obam-
.
pies that in 1968 the countr
tained enough highly enriched
uranium: to. make-.several: atomic
c~.f 7
Sometime during the. early 1960s a sizable qurr.l
tity of uranium disappeared from the NUMEC:
plant, which was founded by Shapiro, a former-
Atomic Energy Commission : chemist who had,
worked in the Manhattan Project, the World War'
11 effort which developed the atomic bomb.
The major business of NUMEC was the fabrica.
tion of highly enriched uranium fuel assemblies
used by U.S. nuclear submarines
d
f
an
sur
ace
"ships. As a sideline, Shapiro. developed a number
of subsidiaries, including a company called ISO-
RAD, which was operated in partnership with the
Israeli Atomic Energy Commission.
. According -to NUMEC financial reports, the
main function of ISORAD was to s
l
I
upp
e
srael
with special irradiation equipment that would be
used to retard spoilage in fish and fruits.
Documents recently obtained from the AEC's
successor, the Department of Energy, under the
Freedom of Information Act show that the AEC
became increasingly concerned about. security
risks. at. NUMEC in the early 1960s because of
chronic laxity of controls and the frequent.pres-
ence of Israeli and other alien visitors at the plant- ,
ALTHOUGH SHAPIRO argued .that the miss;
n
The ident heat oiy of tfie Israeli
uranium was believed to, be-the first
hard evidence that sizable -quantities
?of a bomb-grade material had some
how been -diverted from one of the
five nations then.: in the . nuclear
'club." - x
'According to several- government
sources, the CIA then brought the
FBI into the-case and a- top-secret
surveillance and wiretapping effort
was focused on what was believed to
have been the most likely source of
the diversion, a company in Apollo'
Pa., called the Nuclear Materials:
and EquipmentCorp.
The wiretap was' placed on the
phones of Zalman ? M.. Shapiro, the,
president of- NUMEC. - It was re-
~moved a year later, in I969, after the:
"FBI" discovered that -Shapiro was-
communicating with Israeli - diplo
mats in New York through the use of
an "encoded'". telephone,- a device
which- scrambles ordinary phone sig-
nals into a code which is unscram-
bled by a similar device on the other
end.
>t:r :sti
THE TAP ENDED, according to
the sources, after an unsuccessful at-
tempt to break the code. Because the
Y BI was permitted a limited number,
of wiretaps. pressure mounted within':
the agency to use the NUMEC tape;
'on a more"Productive" case.
uranium was accidentally lost in the form, of
wastes, a' massive, three-pronged investigation by
the AECi
19
rv
66 concluded that there was no known
explanation that would account for the loss of 206
pounds of highly enriched uranium, an mount bo
lieved to be sufficient for at l
t 10
eas
atomic bombs.
Although the CIA apparently was not involved in
the 1966 investigation, the agency's curiosity be-
came aroused later after several U.S: scientists re-
turning - from Israel warned that the Israelis
appeared to be. developing a nuclear weapons pro,
gra
b
d
m
ase
on a supply --of highly enriched
,uranium.
At that point the agency had at its disposal a:
n
b
f
um
er o
secret devices to detect the presence of,
any laboratory or processing- facility working with-
ua
titi
q
n
es of what the. nuclear trade -refers to as,
SNM or "special nuclear material-"..
-
Some equimpent was 'airborne: Others:: were
small; portable instruments called "sniff ".
highly enriched uranium in the air.: - -
Tt is not No
s ce sal
`aaat was prvo-.
-awlY a
type of mass spectrometer, which has the.
#ONi.Aid `E
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060018-6