The Apollo Affair was a 1965 incident in which Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) a company based in the United States near 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.
From 1965 to 1980, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated Zalman Shapiro, the company’s president, over the loss of 206 pounds (93 kg) of highly enriched uranium. Shapiro was a long-time Zionist, and he had business interests and contacts among high government officials in Israel, including a contract to build nuclear-powered generators for Israel. 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.” 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.
Some remain convinced that Israel received 206 pounds (93 kg) or more of highly enriched uranium from NUMEC, particularly given the visit of Rafi Eitan, later revealed as an Israeli spy and who was later involved in the Jonathan Pollard incident. 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.”
Read more @ The Apollo Affair – Wikipedia – Rafi Eitan – Wikipedia – Zalman Shapiro – Wikipedia
