Shapiro denied any wrongdoing, and said that such discrepancies are 'not unusual' and that losses could be explained as normal to the complex processing. However, no charges were ever filed, and one report concluded that there was 'no substantive evidence to indicate that a diversion occurred'.

Estimates of the missing amount have varied as well, from 200 pounds to almost 600 pounds. Both the AEC and the FBI examined the records and the plant only a small portion of what was thought to be missing was located. The missing uranium was investigated several times over two decades. In September 1968, four Israeli intelligence agents visited NUMEC among them was Rafi Eitan, who was listed as a defense ministry chemist. He was suspected for many years of diverting some 269 kilograms (591 pounds) of uranium to Israel, enough to make several nuclear weapons. 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 inventory came up short, and after a series of efforts to search and recover the material from the factory and its disposal site, the company paid $834,000 to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) for the missing uranium. After the company was awarded a contract to process enriched uranium, it was told to inventory its uranium. NUMEC began by doing consulting work for companies in the nuclear field, and it was the first company able to provide fuel that could be used for nuclear reactors. (NUMEC) in Apollo, Pennsylvania in 1957 to develop improved methods of processing nuclear fuel. He founded Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corp. He worked for Westinghouse Electric and the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, where he worked on developing the fuel for the first commercial nuclear power plant, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station. Career Īfter completing his education, Shapiro moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and began a career in engineering and chemistry.

He attended Johns Hopkins University, earning B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. He graduated from Passaic High School in New Jersey as the valedictorian in 1938. Shapiro was born in Canton, Ohio, on to Abraham and Minnie ( née Pinck) Shapiro. He received 15 patents, including a 2009 patent on a process to make commercial production of diamonds cheaper, and played a key role in the development of the reactor that powered the world's first nuclear powered submarine, the Nautilus. Zalman Mordecai Shapiro ( – 16 July 2016) was an American chemist and inventor.

2048 - מלחמת אחים by Zalman Shapiro