WASHINGTON - A Chinese national was charged with illegally exporting to China US-made sensors used to produce weapons-grade uranium, the US Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
Qiang Hu, 47, a sales manager for a Chinese subsidiary of MKS Instruments, was arrested at his hotel in North Andover, Massachusetts and charged with conspiracy to violate US export laws. He allegedly allowed thousands of pressure measuring sensors, known as pressure transducers, to be exported from the United States to unauthorized users in China, the department said."Pressure transducers are export controlled because they are used in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium and produce weapons-grade uranium," the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Hu was identified as the sales manager at MKS Instruments Shanghai Ltd, the Shanghai branch of MKS Instruments Inc. located in Andover, Massachusetts, which supplies manufacturing equipment.
