Libya: 2.5 tons of uranium from the Gaddafi era disappeared
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sounded alarm bells over the disappearance of about 2.5 tons of Gaddafi-era natural uranium from a site in Libya that is not under the control of the Government of National Unity (GNU) of Tripoli.
IAEA inspectors “discovered that ten drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of UOC (uranium ore concentrate), previously reported by (Libya)… as being stored at that location, were not present at the site ,” the world nuclear observatory said in a statement released Wednesday by IAEA head Rafael Grossi.
"The loss of knowledge about the current location of nuclear material can pose a radiological risk and nuclear safety problems," added Grossi.
Libya's protracted civil war had prevented the IAEA from previously inspecting the site.
Although the Agency has not indicated the exact location of the site, it is highly probable that it is in Sabha, about 400 miles southeast of the western capital, Tripoli. This area is not controlled by the government. Raw uranium, or yellow cake, is also believed to be stored at the Tajura Nuclear Research Facility near Tripoli; however, this area is under GNU control. Sabha was a Gaddafi-era facility where the dictator hoped to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapons program, but the program was shut down permanently in 2003.
The IAEA has promised to investigate the circumstances surrounding the uranium disappearance.
The fear is that while natural uranium cannot be used for either energy or weapons without a complicated enrichment process, if it falls into the wrong hands it could be sold to regimes with this capability.
Speaking to the BBC, Scott Roecker of the Nuclear Threat Initiative said that in its current form natural uranium "cannot be made into a nuclear weapon", but could be used as "feedstock" for a nuclear weapons programme. He also noted that the material "has no radiation in its current form."
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The article Libya: 2.5 tons of uranium from the time of Gaddafi disappeared comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/libia-scomparse-25-tonnellate-di-uranio-dellepoca-di-gheddafi/ on Fri, 17 Mar 2023 10:00:57 +0000.