NW Democrat-Gazette

Natural uranium found in drums in Libya

CAIRO — U.N. inspectors visiting southern Libya found drums containing natural uranium reported missing earlier this month in the chaos-stricken country, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Saturday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier this month that some 2½ tons of natural uranium stored at a site in the southern town of Sabha had disappeared. Forces of the Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter said they found the missing material close to the storage site.

In a statement Saturday to The Associated Press, the Vienna-based agency said U.N. inspectors visited the area Tuesday and saw the material being transferred to the storage site.

U.N. inspectors found that a “relatively small amount of UOC [uranium ore concentrate] was still unaccounted for,” it said.

The agency said, however, there was no immediate radiological risk at the location.

The statement said investigations were still underway on the matter including reconciling the quantities of natural uranium at the site with those previously verified by the agency.

The agency said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, informed member states Friday about the findings of the visit.

Each ton of natural uranium — if obtained by a group with the technological means and resources — can be refined to 12 pounds of weapons-grade material over time, experts say.

In a statement, Hifter’s forces claimed that Chadian separatist fighters likely attempted to steal the drums after mistaking them for weapons and ammunition. Hifter’s forces provided no evidence for the accusation.

International

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2023-03-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.nwaonline.com/article/281689734064531

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