Uranium reported missing by IAEA in Libya recovered, general says

General Khaled al-Mahjoub said the containers of uranium had been recovered close to where they had been stored in the Sabha area of southern Libya

Earlier on Thursday the IAEA in Vienna reported that 2.5 tonnes of the material had gone missing from a Libyan site and ‘may present a radiological risk’

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Published: 1:57am, 17 Mar 2023Updated: 2:37am, 17 Mar 2023

More than two tonnes of natural uranium reported missing by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog in war-scarred Libya have been found, a general in the country’s east said Thursday.

General Khaled al-Mahjoub, commander of eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar’s communications division, said on his Facebook page that the containers of uranium had been recovered “barely five kilometres (three miles)” from where they had been stored in the Sabha area of southern Libya.

Earlier on Thursday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria reported that 2.5 tonnes of the material had gone missing from a Libyan site and “may present a radiological risk”, according to a confidential report seen by Agence France-Presse.

Uranium ore concentrate is considered to emit low levels of radioactivity.

IAEA inspectors on Tuesday found that “10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tonnes of natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate … were not present” as previously declared at the location, it said.

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