Spying Indictment Has ‘Glaring Scientific Error’
A federal indictment against a former Los Alamos scientist accused of trying to sell classified nuclear information to Venezuela contains an error that is puzzling scientists and delighting defense lawyers.
The indictment charging P. Leonardo Mascheroni asserts the defendant told an FBI agent posing as a spy that a secret nuclear reactor could be built underground for the purpose of “enriching plutonium,” the material used to make nuclear weapons, the New York Times reports. The statement is “a glaring scientific error,” the Times says. Reactors can’t enrich plutonium, but they can purify uranium in an enrichment process.
The Times points out that the offending phrase could be corrected in a superseding indictment, but defense lawyers are already pointing to the error in an effort to undermine the prosecution. Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, a lawyer for Mascheroni’s wife, told the Times that the mistake “raises questions about the credibility of the allegations.”
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