A Chinese-born U.S. nuclear engineer has been accused of recruiting a team of U.S.-based experts to help a state-controlled Chinese nuclear energy company build reactors there.
Szuhsiung Ho, also known as Allen Ho, had dual citizenship in China, where he was employed with the China General Nuclear Power Company, and the U.S., where he was owner and president of Delaware-based Energy Technology International, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in East Tennessee.
The Atomic Energy Act created a path for authorized persons to help develop nuclear materials outside of the U.S. But the indictment alleges Ho and the two companies never sought that authorization.
Instead, Ho recruited nuclear experts through his company, the indictment states. Those recruited included a Tennessee Valley Authority employee who lived in Tennessee and other unnamed engineers from South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Colorado who worked for unnamed nuclear power companies based in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
The indictment quotes an Oct. 2009 communication in which Ho asked an unnamed person for recruiting help.