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Man charged with illegal export of nuclear plant valves to N.Korea

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  • Man charged with illegal export of nuclear plant valves to N.Korea

    Man charged with illegal export of nuclear plant valves to N.Korea

    NEW YORK (AFP) Oct 31, 2003
    A New Jersey man was charged Friday with attempting to illegally export blueprints for valves to be used in the construction of a nuclear power plant in North Korea.
    According to a 10-page complaint filed by the office of US Attorney James Comey, Sitaraman Ravi Mahadevan, 40, allegedly shipped the blueprints to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Inc. in New York, knowing that the Japanese firm would send them to, among other possible places, North Korea.

    Mahadevan is manager of the Nuclear Business Unit at the firm which makes the component, Valcor Engineering Corp. of New Jersey. Mitsubishi is one of the contractors for a five-billion-dollar nuclear plant North Korea.

    US law prohibits the direct or indirect assistance to nuclear facilities or nuclear activities that do not follow safeguards or countries which have not ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

    Following North Korea's decision last year to expel International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, the United States deems all nuclear facilities in that country to be "unsafeguarded."

    The complaint charges that in July, 2002, Mahadevan had applied for and was denied a permit to export valves and associated documents to a plant in Bombay, India, because it was also considered an unsafeguarded nuclear facility.

    Earlier this month, federal investigators searched Valcor's offices and located six packages slated to be sent to Mitsubishis offices in Manhattan via a parcel service.

    Investigators later located 90 separate blueprints of 10 different valves which the complaint charges, "were highly detailed and contained significant amounts of technical data."

    Mahadevan could face up to 10 years if convicted.

    http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031031221611.tyn71jot.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."
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