2.5 tons of uranium missing in Libya, says UN’s nuclear watchdog, raising safety concerns
- Natural uranium cannot immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel, as enrichment process firstly requires the metal to be converted into a gas
- But contents of 10 “not present” drums, if obtained in war-torn nation by someone with technological means, can be refined to weapons-grade material, experts say
Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium stored in a site in war-torn Libya have gone missing, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, raising safety and proliferation concerns.
However, each tonne of natural uranium – if obtained by a group with the technological means and resources – can be refined to 5.6 kilograms (12 pounds) of weapons-grade material over time, experts say. That makes finding the missing metal important for non-proliferation experts.
An IAEA statement gave few details. The agency said that “safeguards inspectors found that 10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate were not present as previously declared at a location in the state of Libya”.
It added that “further activities will be conducted by the agency to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location”.
Reuters first reported on the IAEA warning about the missing Libyan uranium, saying the IAEA told members reaching the site, that is not under government control, required “complex logistics”.
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The IAEA declined to offer more details on the missing uranium. However, its acknowledgement the uranium went missing at a “previously declared site” narrows the possibilities.
One such declared site is Sabha, some 660km (410 miles) southeast of Libya’s capital, Tripoli, in the country’s lawless southern reaches of the Sahara Desert. There, Libya, under dictator Muammar Gaddafi stored thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium for a once-planned uranium conversion facility that was never built in his decades-long secret weapons programme.
Estimates put the Libyan stockpile at some 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium under Gadaffi, who declared his emerging nuclear weapons programme to the world in 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq.
While inspectors removed the last of the enriched uranium from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake remained behind, with the UN in 2013 estimating some 6,400 barrels of it were stored at Sabha. American officials had worried Iran could try to purchase the uranium from Libya, something Gaddafi’s top civilian nuclear official tried to reassure the US about, according to a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.
“Stressing that Libya viewed the question as primarily a commercial one, (the official) noted that prices for uranium yellowcake on the world market had been increasing, and that Libya wanted to maximise its profit by properly timing the sale of its stockpile,” then-Ambassador Gene A. Cretz wrote.
But the 2011 Arab spring saw rebels topple Gadaffi and ultimately kill him. Sabha grew increasingly lawless, with African migrants crossing Libya, saying some had been sold as slaves in the city, the UN reported.
In recent years, Sabha has largely been under the control of the self-styled Libyan National Army, headed by Khalifa Hifter. The general, widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile during Gadaffi’s era, has been battling for control of Libya against a Tripoli-based government.
A spokesman for Hifter declined to answer questions from Associated Press. Chadian rebel forces also have had a presence in the southern city over recent years.
