German blamed for passing nuclear material to Pakistan

AFP ^ | September 25, 2005 | AFP

[CarrotAndStick]

MUNICH, Sept 24: A German businessman has been accused of smuggling material for enriching uranium to Pakistan between 2002 and 2004, according to Monday’s edition of the weekly Focus.

The weekly said the man, identified as Rainer V. had been placed under criminal investigation by prosecutors in Munich for 23 alleged cases of infringement of the law on trade in weapons of war.

Based in Pullach, near Munich, he is accused of buying vacuum pumps, special ventilators and spare parts for mass spectrometers from the Pfeiffer Vacuum company of Hesse. —AFP

[familyop]

Ping!

[RazorGhost]

Germany making the world a safer place since- / joke ends here.

Well ever country has a monster that likes to nuclear secrets. They got that guy. We got Al Gore.

[Bayou City]

Instead of German blamed should that read "German Charged...

[GSlob]

Vacuum pumps and mass spectrometers are common laboratory equipment. Large vacuum pumps are common industrial equipment (used in, say, semiconductor industry, or in pharmaceutical industry). Special ventilators(?) might indeed be special, but pumps and spectrometers are no smoking gun.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Based in Pullach, near Munich, he is accused of buying vacuum pumps

He was quoted as saying "It's not mine, I swear!"

[CarrotAndStick]

Those are not ordinary vacuum pumps, nuclear research equipment is far more sophisticated. owing to the criticality of nuclear experiments.

[GSlob]

Actually, from my experience (radiochemistry university course ages ago - probably the same technology level now practiced in the axis of evil) I'd say that the only sophisticated pieces of equipment there were the hot rooms and manipulators. Everything else was of standard, corrosion-resistant variety. And for critical vacuum systems there are check valves and redundant pumps - nothing more involved than in semiconductors.

[CarrotAndStick]

You're the expert then! I thought I was talking to a fellow layman!

[endthematrix]

Welcome to dual-use. Many are specifically prohibited under the Commerce Control List. A.Q. Khan and Co. violated this.

[endthematrix]

Just the tip of the iceberg we are about to crash into:

http://www.isis-online.org/publications/southafrica/asherkarni.html

Oscilloscopes
Infra-red detectors
Regulators
Manometers
Accelerometer

---

Saddam built his nuclear program on the backs of Western export control. Nuclear switches were constructed from lithotriptor machines.

[GSlob]

With some effort and ingenuity EVERYTHING could be turned to dual use. Krytron switches, for example, are specialized [vacuum - actually, gas-filled] tubes, invented by Harold Edgerton in 1930s. One could dance around them, using air gap spark switches instead, or probably a piezogenerator from a conventional explosion shock wave. The only commodity to really be on the prohibited list is knowledge - stop training foreign students, and keep the lands of evil in the darkness of ignorance - but it may be too late for that.