THE TELEGRAPH: A US physicist and his wife who both worked for a high-level US energy laboratory have been arrested and charged with conspiring to sell nuclear secrets to Venezuela.
Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, 75, is said to have claimed that he could help Venezuela achieve a nuclear bomb within 10 years.
He was held following a sting operation in which an FBI undercover operative posed as an agent from the South American country.
The US government said that, in reality, Venezuela had not been seeking US secrets, nor had anyone working for it.
Under Mr Mascheroni's alleged plan, Venezuela would have used a secret, underground nuclear reactor to produce and enrich plutonium, and an open reactor above ground to create nuclear energy.
The scientist's wife, Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, a US citizen, was also arrested.
Both used to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a US government facility which conducts nuclear weapons research.
They appeared in court in Albuquerque, New Mexico to face 22 charges. They could be imprisoned for life if convicted. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Friday, September 17, 2010
