v 7-15-7 - FEDERAL ·FIEPORTING ' OF FIC E PITTSBURGH Bl •iEAU mggfNd't'o OF INVES 'a GATION D A TE FIELD OFFICE I NVE 4 2 3 80 S TIG A T I V E P E RIOD - 3 11 80 rlT E OFC LMAN MORDECAI SHAPIRO rci10 I RE l b6 b7C 4 1 5 80 y e CHARACTER OF CASE ATOMIC ENERGY AC OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE REFERENCE Bureau teletype t o Pittsburgh Pittsburgh t elet y p e t o Bureau Pittsburgh teletyp e t o Bureau dated 3 25 80 dated 4 7 80 dat e d 4 17 80 - RUC ENCLOSURES Enclos e d f o r Washingt o n Field are th e or iginal l notes regarding one copy each of two EP-3P2s rnd origina of and interviews at P ittsburgh r r i r· r · · · - L - - - - - ---r-- -----' Al _ ' •· · _ • · • · • · · 1 ' 1 I r -· ' ·- ' _ ' - _ · b - -l -ETR _ _ll _ JF U_ GJ __ APPROVED ' PI ES _ I_N _E_S F _ 1 ___ JJ f u __ J_ _ _ - __ _JL_ 5 P ECIAL AGENT IN C HA RGE __ I J'El 1 and _ l - PENDING PROSECU I ON J _P _N E _O _ I _N _G O_V_ E _R _O_N _ET_Y_E_A _R_ D_ Y_E _ s_ o_ OVER SI M ONTHS 0YE 5 O N_O NO DO NOT WRITE IN SPACES BELOW M AD E II 7 2 Bur ea u 117- 25 64 2 - Philad e lphia 117-1 7 4 2 - Washingt o n Field 117- 2 7 3 En c 6 1 - Pitt s burgh 117-108 2 - 1 i ssem i notipn Record of Attoched · - ---- _ ___ R EC OFmr- ·u M 1 Y · ·1 - - -· Nototlons Report - A COVER PAGE l _ 0 _n UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT FEDERAL In Reply Piewe Ref r u File No BUREAU Pittsburgh March OF J USTI OF I NVEST IGATIO N Pennsylvania 25 1980 b6 b 7C E'ORMEREMPLOYEE OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT CORPO APOLLO PENNSYLVANIA ATOMIC ENERGY ACT s interviewed ation This document contains neither recomm tions nor conclusions of the FBI It the property of the FBI a nd is loaned agency it and its contents are not to distributed outside your agency t ' J I I '· FD -302 R EV 3 · 8-77 FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION 3 24 80 Date of transcr i ption b6 b7C telephonej was interviewed at his residence After b-e-1 n-g---a d-v i-s-e d --o f the ide titie of the inter iewi g Agents and the n ture of the interview I Jprov1ded the following information '--- -- -- -- ---r- - - -- -_ - -- -- -----11 l advised that he was employed by Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp NUMEC in February 1965 exact date unknown and was continuously employed at the Apollo Pa facility through two ownership changes until October 1978 I advised that he was fired 1978 by the present owner Babcock and Wilcox in October Inc for job abandonment following an alleged job related illness I 1advised that upon being hired at NUMEC he was given three days of schooling on the equipment he was to operate and briefed by the Personnel Manager and Low Enrichment Facility Foreman concerning the security measures at the Apollo facility nuclear plant He then commenced his production line job upon completion of this related that his exact position brief schooling · j was Senior Ammonator Operator in the Low Enriched Operations area which was immediately adjacent to the loading dock I Ifurther area of the Apollo nuclear facility described the NUMECApollo plant as being broken down into four areas the Low Enriched area the High Enriched area the Sphere area and the Peletizer area He advised that although his full-time job was on the Low Enriched Area Ammonator he worked overtime in the High Enriched area on several occasions advised in late March or early April ex a-c_t __ d- -a-t_e __u_n known while working on a swing shift 12 00 a m his Ammonator was shut from 3 30 o m until 9 00 and 10 00 p m in the evening down between -approximately He stated that because of the negative air pressure within the plant area conditions were usually very warm so he walked out to the loading dock for a breath of air The 20 feet from his loading dock was located approximately equipment through a single door j j advised that 1965 3 21 80 Investigation Apollo Pa Pittsburgh on•_- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - a ' -------- F Iie SA by _ _bl ---- -- Oate dicta t ed __ Th is document cont ain s ne ith e r recommend a t ion s no r co nclusions o f the FBI It Is 11 i'Qt ft • It and its conten ts are not to be d istribu ted outside your a gency 2 117-108 #--------- 3124180 _ __ _ __ ______ r t 'f fl' 'rj I l • l aa to your agen c y ___ _ b6 b7C _ PG 117-108 2 c' Oi·u--it ·· · 11 employees often went to the loading dock to ge·t a frr JJegu -- i of air and further said he thought he remembered an employees' eating area on the dock I I related that when he entered the loading dock area on this particular evening he noticed a flatbed truck backed up to the loading dock with some strange equipment on it He described th e equ ipment as several steel cabinets with some kind of gauges on the front of them and I I other equipment which looked like a lathes opined the equipment may have come from the Peletizer area of which he was not familiar I advised he then noticed he NUMECowner Dr Zalman Sha iro pacing around JShipping and Receiving the loading aock while I ttruc kdriver for NUMEC were Foreman andL loading stove pipes' into the steel cabinet type equipment that he observed on the truck I J recalled n the that there were four or five of the steel cabinet flatbed truck I jstated that I and l never loaded trucks themselves always employing ot er workers b6 b7C i I I stated that the stove pipes are cylindrical storage containers used to store canisters of high enriched materials in the vaults locate d at the Apollo nuclear facility I stated that the stove pipes contained three or four canisters which were described as highly polished aluminum with standard printed square yellow labels approximately three inches in diameter by six inches tall that normally were used to store high enriched uranium products which defined as 95 percent uranium _ - I stated that he observed two workmen whose names he could not recall bringing the stove pip e s from the High Enriched vault area located approximately 150 feet from the docks to the dock area where Jana opened the stove pipes and withdrew the canisters I checked located in the stove pipes He then said the label on each canister for information and checked it off on a shipping order he had attached to a clipboard I advise d that the canisters were then replaced in the stove pipe and then the stove pipe itself was loaded into the cabin et type equipment after being wrapped with a brown paper type insulation I advised that he observed one cabinet being loaded and that he stove pipes were placed one in each back co 7ner o the cabin 7t and one in the front center of the cabinet directly behind the door I des ribed the can sters foun i the stove pip e-s__ as a pproximately three inches by six inches bright polished aluminum canisters with yellow labels containing typewritten information and nuclear fan symbols in the upper corners of t e label aid _h had ' IL l 'II_ ' f - l I 3 ' l PG 117-108 3 never observed typewritten inf ormation he had p r eviously see n on t he dQck ------- on the l ab e ls that 'h o JCfQ J-r J J • r-iI u L I • I IALb6 advi s ed he was sure this as High Enriched uranium produ c ts due t o the s ize an d shape of the container and the la beling He stated th at the containers ere mu h larger than the he used in the Low Ent i che J ar ea 1 canisters he observed and use J a dif f erent l dbel '-------J b7c I stated he had never seen stove pipes used as shipping containers but whenever High Enric hed uranium products were shipped the canisters were unloade d from the stove pipes an d loaded into cement lined st e el further advi s ed that the r o ute t he wor kmen drums I transporting the stove p i pes used took them away fro m the Low Enriched area and 0rought t hem onto the dock through a d ifferent door The Low Enriched mate r ials v 1ults were 50 feet from the dock ar e a down an located approximately angled corridor I l sa id the no rmal rout e for High Enriched materials from the High Enriched vaults was down the s ame corridor whe re the Low Enr iche · va u lt s we r 8 located citing his natural curi 0s i ty stated lay his clipboard down on an empty he observed I on the dock whereupon proceeded drum located to read the information contained on the shipping order He said he noticed that the destination fo r the equipment on the truck was Israel and that it was to be transported by ship He recalled that the ship had a l ong fo r eign name he believed to _ r r and its location at the time 1 U1 ···--- hie 1 1 was - 1n - New· Yor k·-C 1ty - advis ed t hat he believ name was Greek because when he was in the he was a radi o man third class stationed Facility Londonderry Northern Ireland U _ me ssages fr om Gr e ek s hipping among_ others I ed t he ship's U S Navy 1956-60 at the Naval Rad i o and had handled c re d stated that a fte r he had qu i kly the inform a tion contained on the shipping order grabbed the clipboa r d away from him telling himL-tn--wo-r '_s __ to the effect that the material contained in the shipping order was co nfi dential and not f or h is eye s advised that shortly thereafter an armed guard ordered him off the loading doc k state d he d ' J not ob · serve anybody call the a rmed guard nor did he see the guard the guar d came fr om on on the dock nut t hat he believed of the hallways adjoining the dock I stated that he was on t he l oa di ng doc K f or appr ox Lrnat e ly 15 minut e s and that at no time did Dr Shapiro or l or an ybod y m t o l eave l • 4 - i __ J • I PG 117-108 4 QrJFJSENTfr L b6 l further ad vised that it was highly unusual sect10 -n-ot-trr e ApolTo to see Dr h p_iro _in e manufacturing Q_ Uclear f'ac1l 1ty 1 t was_ unusua l -t e Q1 _ Shap i ro there at nigh t ana very unusual to s e Q _ $tt ito o _s af to pace aroun d l I descr pea-D r Shapiro as a ver y--cailll -c o an collected man who never got upset I advised t hat mentation he had access t o we re for the Lo w Enrichment Ar ea and shift on which he was working tion of each shift the records facturing a r ea and taken across offices the onl y records the shift product then only during He stated that at were removed from the street to the and docui ons records the specific the complethe manuadministrati I advised that most of the s hipping was normally done at daytime but did stat e that occasionally there was some shipping activity in the early evenings He stated it was highly unusual though that any equipment would be shipped at night advised t hat he had not se en previously the equipmLe_n_t__ h_e_n_o Jted on the loading dock and fl 1 t bed trailer and that he had not s e en the equ pment su bsequent to that incident or any equipment like it in th e NUMECApollo nuclea r facility l l s tated he became aware of the alleged diversion of nuclear material s th r ough newspaper a ticle s which caused him to think He sai d that eve r yone at the from the High plant knew there were losse s o f materials Enr iched area but nobody seemed to care during the time the facility was owned by NUMEC He stated when AtlaQti c Richfi e ld Company purchased NUMEC th e losses stopped l f urther stated th at newsRaper accounts of the alleged div l rr§1on mentioned Doctor Shap iro and he recalled th at ju s t prior to the previousl y mentioned incident it was an open plant rumor that Doctor Shapiro had just ret i rrnea from an extensive vacation in Isra e l I advis ed he had not come forwa d be fore because he bad a large famil y t o support and the day following the incident the plant Personnel Manyge r name unrecalled o ire I _i f he did not keep of NUMECthreatene his mouth shut conc e rning what he ha d seen on the loading - r- ' ·' - • • 1 • 1 Q I ' • '' b7C ve • PG 117-108 5 L L l· · '6'QIHl siis1 1L1mz I dock the night oefore j furth•r adv i ed he mentioned the threat he received ffnm tbe Pefsonnel Manager to his union steward whereupon_ _claims he was visited by sone union goons from Kittanning Pa and again told to keep his mouth shut • t b6 b7 C 1 ____ ___ stated th · eval iin J at t itude at the plant in 1965 by management union and the employees was that the Atomic Energy Commission was the enemy looking for a reason to shut the facil ity down with the resultant job losses In addition he stated he did not know how or who to contact in authority who wou d take action I dvised information concerning this March or early April 1965 that he could cecall no other incident which occurred in late • · · ' ' • -nOi'lfF nr in - ' · 6 ' · · ··n b r