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Apollo affair

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The Apollo affair or NUMEC affair was a 1965 incident in which a US company, NUMEC, in the Pittsburgh suburbs of Apollo and Parks Township, Pennsylvania, was investigated for losing 200–600 pounds (91–272 kg) of highly enriched uranium, with suspicions that it had gone to Israel's nuclear weapons program.

History

From 1965 to 1980, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated Zalman Shapiro, the president of Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC), over the loss of 206 pounds (93 kg) of highly enriched uranium. Shapiro was a long-time Zionist,[1][2][3] and he had business interests and contacts among high government officials in Israel, including a contract to build nuclear-powered generators for Israel.[4] The Atomic Energy Commission, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), other government agencies, and inquiring reporters conducted similar investigations, and no charges were ever filed. A General Accounting Office study of the investigations declassified in May 2010 stated "We believe a timely, concerted effort on the part of these three agencies would have greatly aided and possibly solved the NUMEC diversion questions, if they desired to do so."[5]

In February 1976 the CIA briefed senior staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) about the matter, stating that the CIA believed the missing highly enriched uranium went to Israel. The NRC informed the White House, leading to President-elect Carter being briefed about the investigation. Carter asked for an assessment by his National Security Advisor, whose staff concluded "The CIA case is persuasive, though not conclusive."[6][7]

Some remain convinced that Israel received 206 pounds (93 kg) or more of highly enriched uranium from NUMEC,[8][9] particularly given the visit of Rafi Eitan, later revealed as an Israeli spy and who was later involved in the Jonathan Pollard incident.[10] In June 1986, analyst Anthony Cordesman told United Press International:

"There is no conceivable reason for Eitan to have gone [to the Apollo plant] but for the nuclear material."[10]

In his 1991 book, The Samson Option, Seymour Hersh concluded that Shapiro did not divert any uranium; rather "it ended up in the air and water of the city of Apollo as well as in the ducts, tubes, and floors of the NUMEC plant."[11] He also wrote that Shapiro's meetings with senior Israeli officials in his home were related to protecting the water supply in Israel rather than any diversion of nuclear material or information.[11]

A later investigation was conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (successor to the AEC) regarding an additional 198 pounds (90 kg) of uranium found to be missing between 1974 and 1976, after the plant had been purchased by Babcock & Wilcox and Shapiro was no longer associated with the company. That investigation found that more than 110 pounds (50 kg) of it could be accounted for by what was called "previously unidentified and undocumented loss mechanisms", including "contamination of workers' clothes, losses from scrubber systems, material embedded in the flooring, and residual deposits in the processing equipment."[11] Hersh further quoted one of the main investigators, Carl Duckett, as saying "I know of nothing at all to indicate that Shapiro was guilty."[11]

In 1993, Glenn T. Seaborg, former head of the Atomic Energy Commission wrote a book, The Atomic Energy Commission under Nixon, Adjusting to Troubled Times which devoted a chapter to Shapiro and NUMEC, the last sentence of which states:

Distinguished as Shapiro's career has been, one cannot but wonder whether it might not have been even more illustrious had these unjust charges not been leveled against him.[12]

Later U.S. Department of Energy records show that NUMEC had the largest highly enriched uranium inventory loss of all U.S. commercial sites, with a 269 kilograms (593 lb) inventory loss before 1968, and 76 kilograms (168 lb) thereafter.[13]

At the prompting of Zalman Shapiro's lawyer, Senator Arlen Specter asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to clear him of any suspicion of diversion in August 2009. The NRC refused, stating:

NRC found no documents that provided specific evidence that the diversion of nuclear materials occurred. However, consistent with previous Commission statements, NRC does not have information that would allow it to unequivocally conclude that nuclear material was not diverted from the site, nor that all previously unaccounted for material was accounted for during the decommissioning of the site.[14]

In 2014, further documents about the investigation were declassified, though still heavily redacted.[6][7] These documents contained evidence that Attorney General Edward Levi believed that federal officials in charge of the investigation of NUMEC may have been in violation of federal law by failing to report a felony, and committing accessory after the fact.[15]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing a cleanup of contaminated land at the site of NUMEC's waste disposal. The project was scheduled to be completed in 2015,[16][17] but the discovery of a substantially larger amount of contamination resulted in lengthy delays. Remediation is now scheduled to begin in late 2025 or early 2026, with an estimated project time of six years.[18][19]

NUMEC and the Apollo affair

NUMEC began by doing consulting work for companies in the nuclear field, and it was the first company able to provide fuel that could be used for nuclear reactors.[20][21] After the company was awarded a contract to process enriched uranium, it was told to inventory its uranium.[22] The inventory came up short, and after a series of efforts to search and recover the material from the factory and its disposal site, the company paid $834,000 to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) for the missing uranium.[22]

Shapiro was a long-time Zionist,[23][2][24] and he had business interests and contacts among high government officials in Israel, including a contract to build nuclear-powered generators for Israel.[25] He was suspected for many years of diverting some 269 kilograms (591 pounds) of uranium to Israel, enough to make several nuclear weapons.[26][27] In September 1968, four Israeli intelligence agents visited NUMEC; among them was Rafi Eitan, who was listed as a defense ministry chemist.[28][29]

The missing uranium was investigated for over 15 years.[28] Both the AEC and the FBI examined the records and the plant; only a small portion of what was thought to be missing was located. Estimates of the missing amount have varied as well, from 200 pounds to almost 600 pounds.[30] However, one report concluded that there was "no substantive evidence to indicate that a diversion occurred".[28] Shapiro denied any wrongdoing, and said that such discrepancies are "not unusual"[28] and that losses could be explained as normal to the complex processing.[27][30]

In his 1991 book, The Samson Option, Seymour Hersh concluded that Shapiro did not divert any uranium; rather "it ended up in the air and water of the city of Apollo as well as in the ducts, tubes, and floors of the NUMEC plant."[11] He also wrote that Shapiro's meetings with senior Israeli officials in his home were related to protecting the water supply in Israel rather than any diversion of nuclear material or information.[11] A later investigation was conducted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (successor to the AEC) regarding an additional 198 pounds of uranium that was found to be missing between 1974 and 1976, after the plant had been purchased by Babcock & Wilcox and Shapiro was no longer associated with the company. That investigation found that more than 110 pounds of it could be accounted for by what was called "previously unidentified and undocumented loss mechanisms", including "contamination of workers' clothes, losses from scrubber systems, material embedded in the flooring, and residual deposits in the processing equipment."[11] Hersh further quoted one of the main investigators, Carl Duckett, as saying "I know of nothing at all to indicate that Shapiro was guilty."[11]

Later U.S. Department of Energy records show that NUMEC had the largest highly enriched uranium inventory loss of all U.S. commercial sites, with a 269 kilograms (593 lb) inventory loss before 1968, and 76 kilograms (168 lb) thereafter.[13]

The US Army Corps of Engineers oversaw a cleanup of contaminated land at the site of NUMEC's waste disposal, which was scheduled to be completed in 2015,[31] but the discovery of a substantially larger amount of contamination resulted in a seven year delay. Excavation is now scheduled to begin in 2021, with an estimated project time of 10 years.[32][needs update]

Dominique LaPierre and Larry Collins mentioned this incident as part of a lengthy and detailed backstory to Israel's nuclear arsenal and its fictitious aborted nuclear strike against Libya in The Fifth Horseman. The book states that at least half of the uranium, according to the CIA, made it to Israel.[33]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ove, Thorsten (27 April 2008). "New life for decades-old lawsuit blaming nuclear plant for cancers". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A1. Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
  2. 1 2 "ZOA brings Catholic schools to Holocaust Museum". Jewish Chronicle. 12 April 2001. p. 1.
  3. ↑ "Beth Shalom's 85th Anniversary". Lifestyle. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 21 October 2002. p. D3.
  4. ↑ O'Toole, Thomas (6 November 1977). "Lost Uranium Mystery". The Washington Post. p. 1.
  5. ↑ "Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.? 13 Years of Contradiction and Confusion" (PDF). Comptroller General of the United States. 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  6. 1 2 Victor Gilinsky, Roger J. Mattson (17 April 2014). "Did Israel steal bomb-grade uranium from the United States?". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 23 April 2014.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  7. 1 2 "Secrets about suspected Israeli theft of U.S. weapons-grade nuclear material declassified". Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. 27 March 2014. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Victor Gilinsky (former Commissioner U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission) (13 May 2004). "Israel's Bomb". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 24 January 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
  9. ↑ David Burnham (27 January 1978). "C.I.A. said in 1974 Israel had A-bombs". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 June 2024. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
  10. 1 2 "Israeli Spy Visited A-Plant Where Uranium Vanished". United Press International. Los Angeles Times. 16 June 1986. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hersh, Seymour (1991). The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and America's Foreign Policy. Random House. pp. 243, 250, 252, 255. ISBN 0-394-57006-5.
  12. ↑ Glenn T. Seaborg, The Atomic Energy Commission under Nixon:Adjusting to Troubled Times, 1993, St. Martin's Press
  13. 1 2 Office of the Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs (January 2001), Highly Enriched Uranium: Striking A Balance - A Historical Report On The United States Highly Enriched Uranium Production, Acquisition, And Utilization Activities From 1945 Through September 30, 1996 (Revision 1 (Redacted For Public Release) ed.), U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, p. 107, archived from the original on 22 June 2011, retrieved 13 June 2009
  14. ↑ R. W. Borchardt (2 November 2009), Letter to Senator Specter (PDF), Nuclear Regulatory Commission, archived (PDF) from the original on 21 February 2014, retrieved 23 March 2012
  15. ↑ "Did Israel steal bomb-grade uranium from the United States? | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". 22 July 2014. Archived from the original on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Shallow Land Disposal Area, p. 1, archived from the original on 27 September 2011, retrieved 23 October 2011
  17. ↑ Scott C. Johnson, What Lies Beneath Archived 13 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Foreign Policy, 2015/03/23
  18. ↑ M. A. Thomas (14 November 2018), Army Corps of Engineers: $500 million Parks Township nuclear waste removal project is a 'go', Trib Live, archived from the original on 21 September 2019, retrieved 29 November 2020
  19. ↑ Stanish, Erika (6 November 2025). "Remediation set to begin at giant nuclear waste dump in Armstrong County - CBS Pittsburgh". CBS News. Archived from the original on 11 December 2025. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  20. ↑ Thomas, Mary Ann; Santanam, Ramesh (28 August 2002). "NUMEC made significant advancements". Valley News Dispatch. Retrieved 17 June 2009. [permanent dead link]
  21. ↑ Smith, Gene (25 September 1960). "NUMEC's Founders Say It Takes Only Common Sense". The New York Times. p. F1.
  22. 1 2 O'Toole, Thomas (10 November 1974). "Possibility of Attempted Nuclear Thefts Causing Deep Concern". Los Angeles Times. p. B1.
  23. ↑ Ove, Thorsten (27 April 2008). "New life for decades-old lawsuit blaming nuclear plant for cancers". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A1. Archived from the original on 21 January 2012.
  24. ↑ "Beth Shalom's 85th Anniversary". Lifestyle. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 21 October 2002. p. D3.
  25. ↑ O'Toole, Thomas (6 November 1977). "Lost Uranium Mystery". The Washington Post. p. 1.
  26. ↑ Thomas, Mary Ann; Santanam, Ramesh (25 August 2002). "Government agencies investigated missing uranium, NUMEC". Valley News Dispatch. Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
  27. 1 2 Thomas, Mary Ann; Santanam, Ramesh (25 August 2002). "Despite doubts, Shapiro maintains innocence". Valley News Dispatch. Archived from the original on 11 September 2004. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
  28. 1 2 3 4 Santos, Lori (17 June 1986). "Israeli agent linked to uranium disappearance - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  29. ↑ Babcock, Charles R. (5 June 1986). "U.S. an Intelligence Target Of the Israelis, Officials Say". The Washington Post. p. A1.
  30. 1 2 Fialka, John J. (18 December 1985). "Investigators in Pollard Case Confront History Of Accommodation by U.S., Israeli Spy Agencies". The Wall Street Journal. p. 64.
  31. ↑ United States Army Corps of Engineers (12 April 2010). "Shallow Land Disposal Area, Parks Township, PA" (PDF). p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2013. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  32. ↑ M. A. Thomas (14 November 2018), Army Corps of Engineers: $500 million Parks Township nuclear waste removal project is a 'go', Trib Live, retrieved 29 November 2020
  33. ↑ Page 131, E-book version. Collins, Larry and LaPierre, Dominique. The Fifth Horseman. Beverly Hills, CA: Renaissance Literary and Talent, 2012. Originally New York City: Simon and Schuster, 1980.

Further reading

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