![]() in 2013 estimating some 6,400 barrels of it were stored at Sabha. While inspectors removed the last of the enriched uranium from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake remained behind, with the U.N. The agency is actively working to verify them.” They also didn't explain how the site had been secured - or if it was currently.Īsked about the claim by Hifter's forces, the IAEA said: “We are aware of media reports that the material has been found. Hifter's forces also asserted the IAEA failed to provide protective equipment and security for the site, though countries with nuclear material themselves bear responsibility for those sites. ![]() The conflicting timelines could not be immediately reconciled. They claimed that a top IAEA official informed them of the “opening" nearly a week earlier than the agency described discovering the missing uranium. Hifter's forces also claimed the storage site had been found with an “opening” on its side. The video footage resembled features of the desert surrounding the uranium stockpile site, though the AP could not immediately locate it. Hifter's forces provided no evidence for the accusation. They tried to accuse Chadian separatist fighters, who operate in the region, of stealing the drums after mistaking them for weapons and ammunition. ![]() Hifter's forces claimed they found the drums some 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of the facility. However, the man did not open the drums in the footage. News footage from 2011 of the facility showed similar drums. Some of the blue-painted drums bore what appeared to be batch numbers. They published a video showing a man in a disposable white suit and respirator in the desert, counting off what appeared to be 18 metal drums. On Thursday night, Hifter's forces issued a statement claiming they had recovered the material. In recent years, Sabha largely has been under the control of the self-styled Libyan National Army, headed by Khalifa Hifter. Sabha grew increasingly lawless, with African migrants crossing Libya, saying some had been sold as slaves in the city, the U.N. Libya's late dictator Moammar Gadhafi stored thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium for a once-planned uranium conversion facility that was never built in his decadeslong secret weapons program.Įstimates put the Libyan stockpile at some 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium under Gadhafi, who declared his nascent nuclear weapons program to the world in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.īut the 2011 Arab Spring saw rebels topple Gadhafi and ultimately kill him. One such declared site is Sabha, some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southeast of Tripoli, in the country’s lawless southern reaches of the Sahara Desert. Reuters first reported on the IAEA warning about the missing Libyan uranium, saying the IAEA told members reaching the site that’s not under government control required “complex logistics.” ![]() The IAEA did not identify the site, nor did it respond to questions about it from The Associated Press. “Further activities will be conducted by the agency to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location.” On Tuesday, “agency 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,” the IAEA said. The IAEA statement remained tightlipped though on details. In a statement, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, informed member states Wednesday about the missing uranium. That makes finding the missing metal important for nonproliferation experts. Natural uranium cannot immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel, as the enrichment process typically requires the metal to be converted into a gas, then later spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.īut each ton 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.
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