URANIUM FOR 10 A-BOMBS LOST - COMPANY HIRED AGAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400060025-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: August 28, 1977
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 200 / i1j,~,9~ - $18-01315R000400 001"5-- (A R,
28 AUGUST 1977 C~1:2 :itLLU t s , u, tiK
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By John FIn.lka
Wast:rtSton Star SUfI Writer
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I H"] R ED" - A _G A I
While congressional and govern- F
ment investigators were still probing
for an explanation of why a Pennsyl-
vania company had lost enough
highly enriched uranium to make 10
atomic bombs, the Atomic Energy
Commission was in the process of se-
lecting the same. company to handle:
the largest amount of plutonium that
had ever been released for civilian.
purposes.
-The award of a new, contract to,
process almost`three tons of plu
tonium, which is.,also a bomb-grade
metal, occurred in 1966 while the-
company, the Nuclear Materials and
Equipment Corp.:, (NUMEC),'. was.-
under investigation: by a variety-of
agencies including the FBI; the CIA,
and the AEC -- investigations that fo-.
cused.on the j ossibility that the miss-
ing,uranium may have been diverted.
through a "gap" in government safe
,guards.systems and sent to Israel.
Also, according to documents.
released last week .by the ARC's.
successor, the Energy Research and
Development Administration? wh'ile':
the investigations~.were' still under-
way a "deal" -was, struck between'
NUMEC. officials ~ and Howard C
Brown Jr.,. thm the AEC assistant4
general manager.:.,,','.'. ?A handwritten.note on a memo to
Brown said ._.that- NUMEC officials;
:would agree to an AEC'evaluation of)
the lost material if they had Brown's
assurance "that AEC has no present,
intention to lower?theboom." :. ,
A. second note,'in'itialed by Brown,dw
; -said, "We have noE~" ASKED ABOUT THE note,. Brotime id -we,? nor could we, waive rights of prose-
cution." He added, however. that the-
Atomic- Energy Act, which called for.
'-life imprisonment or death if nuclear..
material were diverted to a foreign
nation, "was a very severe thing to
work under."
At that point,it November 1965,
Brown said he had found no evidence
of "criminal. negligence" at the
plant. "I felt ' we reached 'a point
where we. really had to fish or cut
bait."
N MEC eventually agreed to pay'
$1.3 million for 206 pounds ''of
uranium that the AEC said could not
have been lost as waste in normal.
plant processes. The plant is 'located]
at Apollo, Pa., about 30 miles north- 1
east of Pittsburgh.
According to documents made pub-'
lic last week, investigators were'.
never able to determine what hap-
pened to the uranium because some
of the plant's records were missing?1
and others had been destroyed durZ'
ing a plant, "cleanup. campaign". in'
.1964. T 4 :r..: k
An official AEC survey of the
plant, released in February 1966,
reached `.the conclusion that
"NUMEC management had not as-
signed the caliber of full-time profes-
'sional talent' to the job of materials
rir inagement generally found neces-
sai?y'in such a complex operation."
In the spring.and summer of 1966,
investigators for the Joint Congres-
sional Committee on Atomic Energy; .
which was not satisfied with the AEC.
probe, ordered the General Account-'
ing Office to investigate the plant.
AT THE SAME TIME, over the I'I problems getting cooperation from
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gated the uranium loss, another
branch. of the AEC was selecting
NUMEC from a list of four other
companies as the "best qualified" to
handle a new experimental reactor
program featuring a device: called
the.. "Zero Power Plutonium Reac-
tor," or ZPPR.
ZPPR, an experimental forerunner
of the breeder reactor, required 2,900
kilograms of. plutonium, an.. amount
four, times. larger than any previous
plutonium ', fabrication :: contract in
AEC history.. (It takes approximately
4 kilograms. of plutonium or 11 kilo- -
grams of highly'enriched uranium to
'make an atomic bomb. There are 2.2
pounds in a kilogram.)
Milton Shaw;- then head of the
AFC's reactor'- development pro-
gram, said he solicited the contract
proposal from NUMEC., because
-`there were'people who were in a re-
sponsible position -(in the AEC) who
felt that they (NUMEC) should have
been competing for this."
Asked who. the people were, Shaw.
now a private consultant, said that,
the contract was approved by the
AEC's commissioners. Shaw said he
'uranium but added, "I made checks
on those things and no one ever put
anything on the table that led me to
feel that there was anything substan-
tive involved." r'
According to the documents, there r
were others within the AEC who felt
differently. Charles A. Keller, an Oak
Ridge nuclear materials expert who
had headed a , survey crew at
NUMEC. sent a telegram to AEC
headquarters protesting the ship-
ment of any further bomb-grade- ma-
terial to the plant because NUMEC '
officials had been "less than candid"
with AEC investigators.
Keller, now ERDA's assistant
manager for operations at .. Oak
Ridge, told a reporter. '.'I don't know
what pressures were being brought
politically and otherwise in Washing-
ton to keep that company operating. I
wouldn't have given them any more
until they straightened up and flew
right, but I guess mine was the voice
crying in the wilderness."
IN 1967, AFTER the ZPPR award,
AEC investigators continued to have ~-~
books was an annual inventory. John
V.Vinciguerra, who had replaced
Brown as the AEC's assistant
general manager,, asked Zalman !
Shapiro, NUINIEC's president, to '
tigators could be present to watch it.
According to Vinciguerra, Shapiro
agreed to the delay and then went
AEC inspectors -arrived.:..,,"He {
tional state at the time," said Vinci..;_-..
ing.'.' Vinciguerra currently works as
the manager of a Midwest electrical
equipment manufacturing company.
-According to several sources, one-..
of -the reasons Shapiro was upset at
the time was that Adm. Hyman Rick-
over, whose orders of nuclear subma-_.
rive fuel had been NUMEC's biggest
source of business, had threatened to
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