Word: almelo
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...scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, resigned in March 1976 from his post as a metallurgist at the Physical Dynamics Research Laboratory, known as F.D.O., in Amsterdam. The firm was involved in research and development at one of Western Europe's most advanced atomic installations, the URENCO uranium-enrichment facility at Almelo, also in the Netherlands. The plant is today one of Western Europe's major sources of low-enriched uranium for nuclear reactors. High-speed gas centrifuges like those at URENCO -- thousands of devices lined up in rows like washing machines in a laundromat -- can also be used to produce...
...that Khan got his chance to get into the gas centrifuge plant at Almelo. Owned and operated by a consortium called Urenco, it was administered jointly by Britain, West Germany and The Netherlands. Khan had first come to Holland in 1963 at the age of 27 to enroll in the prestigious Technical University of Delft. He performed well, both there and, later, in the doctoral program at Belgium's Catholic University in Louvain...
...Pakistanis also contend that there is no such person as Abdul Qadar Khan. Meanwhile, the Dutch government, which two weeks ago admitted the security slip at Almelo, is deeply embarrassed by the whole affair and is conducting an investigation-albeit four years late...
...Khan applied for and won a position in a physics-dynamics laboratory run by the Dutch industrial giant Verenigde Metaalfabrieken-Werkspoor, which was doing research for Almelo. He underwent a very light security check conducted by the Dutch authorities: he simply filled out a questionnaire, claiming that he planned to become a Dutch citizen soon and listing the nationality of his South African bride as Dutch. Certified as clean, Khan two years later was invited to work briefly at Almelo...
Khan might still be at Almelo today if he had not been caught reading secret documents he had not been assigned to translate. Plant officials quickly asked that he be moved back to the Amsterdam laboratory, where he was assigned to a department that had no dealings with Almelo. At the same time, the Dutch intelligence agency Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst began an investigation. They learned from Khan's neighbors that a black Mercedes with diplomatic license plates often visited his house. Before the inquiry progressed further, however, Abdul Qadar Khan left Holland in late 1975 to take...