[ISN] Former Energy Worker Admits Trying To Sell Nuclear Secrets

http://www.darkreading.com/security/attacks/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212902962

By Tim Wilson
DarkReading
Jan 27, 2009

A former janitor at a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) site yesterday 
pleaded guilty to stealing information and equipment for developing 
nuclear systems and attempting to sell it to a foreign government.

Just a day before his trial was set to begin, Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, 
changed his plea and pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in 
Knoxville, Tenn., to unlawful disclosure of restricted data under the 
Atomic Energy Act. Oakley admitted to offering classified data and 
equipment for producing highly enriched uranium to an FBI undercover 
officer who was posing as a French government agent. Oakley was asking 
$200,000 for the information.

According to the plea agreement, Oakley had been employed as a laborer 
and escort by Bechtel Jacobs at the East Tennessee Technology Park 
(ETTP) in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The ETTP, formerly known as Y-25, had 
previously been operated by the DOE as a facility to produce highly 
enriched uranium.

While employed at the ETTP in 2006 and 2007, Oakley had a security 
clearance that gave him access to classified and protected materials, 
including instruments, appliances, and information relating to the 
gaseous diffusion process for enriching uranium. Some of the materials 
and information to which Oakley had access were classified as 
"Restricted Data" under the Atomic Energy Act -- any disclosure of which 
was illegal, the plea agreement says. While he worked at the ETTP, 
Oakley had been instructed and informed that this Restricted Data could 
not be disclosed.

In January 2007, Oakley contacted the French Embassy and consulates in 
several U.S. cities to determine the country's interest in purchasing 
the nuclear data and equipment, according to the plea agreement. The 
French government contacted the FBI and set up a sting in which an FBI 
agent posed as a French government agent.

[...]


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