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LOS ANGELES - A former engineer at the largest US nuclear power plant was arrested on suspicion of taking software codes and using them to download details of plant control rooms and reactors while in Iran, officials said today.
The software involved was used to train plant operators and there was no indication of a terrorist connection, said Deborah McCarley, an FBI spokeswoman in Phoenix.
The FBI arrested Mohammad Alavi, who worked at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station outside Phoenix, earlier this month at Los Angeles International Airport when he arrived on a flight from Iran, she said.
He is charged with a single count of violating a trade embargo that bars Americans from exporting goods and services to Iran.
Electronic records show that Alavi's name and password were used to download software registration in October 2006 from a computer in Tehran, according to an FBI affidavit.
Alavi, 49, a US citizen who was born in Tehran, denies wrongdoing, his lawyer, Milagros Cisneros, told the Arizona Republic newspaper.
On Friday a federal judge in Phoenix denied Alavi bail, saying he posed a substantial flight risk, the newspaper reported.
Alavi is accused of removing the software -- which mimics plant operations -- before he quit his job at Palo Verde last August. Export of the software, without prior authorization, is illegal, according to the affidavit.
Alavi faces up to 21 months in prison if convicted of the charge, according to the Arizona Republic.
A spokesman for Arizona Public Service Co., which runs the nuclear power plant, said that "because of existing security and safeguards in place at Palo Verde, the health and safety of the public were never compromised and at no time was the physical or cyber security of the plant compromised."
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February increased its scrutiny of Palo Verde, which has experienced operational problems over the last few years.
Located about 50 miles west of Phoenix, the plant supplies power to around 4 million customers in Arizona and other southwestern states.
- REUTERS
