Frank Fallen wrote:

Not fresh off the wires, about a week old

I am surprised no one here jumped on this story...

Frank

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japanese police on Monday raided a precision
instrument maker, a company official said, amid media reports it
allegedly exported machinery to China and Thailand that could be used
in uranium enrichment.

Investigators raided the headquarters of Mitutoyo Corp. on Monday
morning, according to a company official who refused to be named,
citing internal regulations. The official said she could not provide
further details, but said the company was "cooperating fully" with
investigations.

Mitutoyo Corp. is suspected of exporting two three-dimensional
measurement machines that can be used for uranium enrichment -- a
technology that can produce nuclear fuel or bombs -- to subsidiaries
of Japanese firms in China and Thailand in 2001, according to a report
carried Sunday by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also discovered Mitutoyo
machinery at nuclear-related sites in Libya during inspections in
December 2003 and January 2004, the Yomiuri also said, citing
unidentified sources. The Mainichi and Sankei dailies carried a
similar report Sunday.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police could not disclose any information on
ongoing investigations.

The three-dimensional measurement device is generally used to spot
deformations on a range of equipment. It cannot be exported without
special government permission because it can also be used to determine
centrifugal distances in the process of uranium enrichment, according
to Mikio Aoki, an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry.

Aoki, however, said he was not authorized to speak on the allegations
against Mitutoyo, or on the IAEA findings. He said he was unaware of
previous cases of alleged illegal export by the company.

Police suspect machinery exported by Mitutoyo may have also reached
North Korea via the international black market in nuclear-related
technology, the Sankei said.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx...fx2519862.html

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-...602160149.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...E31477,00.html

Shaublin, the Swiss tool maker was raided in a related issue several
years back. AFAIK it has to do with the ability to measure, and machine,
to very close tolerances for the making of enrichment centrifuges. Kinda
ho-hum as news stories go. There is a lot of tooling out there that can
hold to the specs required, as I understand it. That some of it gets
brought in the back door to countries that other countries don't want to
have it, no real surprise either.

Cheers
Trevor Jones