jan 2, 1965 - The Apollo Affair – U.S. investigation into losses of highly enriched uranium at the NUMEC facility in Apollo, Pennsylvania, with CIA suspicions that the material was diverted to Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

Description:

The Apollo Affair (also called the NUMEC Affair) was a U.S. investigation in the 1960s–70s into the suspected diversion of highly enriched uranium from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) plant in Apollo, Pennsylvania.

NUMEC reported unusually high “inventory losses” of uranium—hundreds of pounds that could not be fully accounted for. U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, suspected that some of this material had been secretly diverted to Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

Over the years, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the GAO, the CIA, and the FBI all investigated. While they documented unexplained losses, poor accounting, and suspicious foreign contacts, no court ever proved diversion, and the case remains unresolved.

In short: it was an unresolved Cold War nuclear-security scandal involving missing bomb-grade uranium, a Pennsylvania factory, and possible Israeli nuclear connections.

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