‘Nuclear plot’: US accuses engineer and Chinese firm of illegally recruiting experts to build power stations

A Chinese-born US nuclear engineer has been accused of recruiting a team of US-based experts to help a state-controlled Chinese nuclear energy company build reactors there.

A two-count indictment was unsealed Thursday in the Eastern District of Tennessee charging Szuhsiung Ho and China General Nuclear Power and Energy Technology International with “conspiracy to unlawfully engage and participate in the production and development of special nuclear material” outside the country without approval, the statement shows. Authorisation is required by law, the agency said.

“The arrest and indictment in this case send an important message to the U.S. nuclear community that foreign entities want the information you possess,” Michael Steinbach, executive assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s national security branch, said in the statement. “The US will use all of its law enforcement tools to stop those who try to steal US nuclear technology and expertise.”

From 1997 until this month, Ho and the Chinese nuclear company plotted to reduce the time and cost of designing components for nuclear reactors through illegal actions, including by obtaining technical assistance from other US experts who weren’t named, according to the 17-page indictment.

Ho is described in the indictment as a nuclear engineer who’s employed by the Chinese company as a senior adviser and also the owner and president of Energy Technology International, based in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

According to the Justice Department, Ho arranged payments in the amounts of US$22,698.54 and US$15,550.20 to two of the unnamed persons for their services. Around October 2009, Ho allegedly told the experts he was attempting to recruit that “China has the budget to spend.”