Found in a camp near Chad
Missing uranium apparently found in Libya
03/16/2023, 8:14 p.m
In Libya, divided by the civil war, the UN nuclear regulatory agency IAEA is missing two and a half tons of uranium. Just under a day later, one of the parties to the conflict reports that the ten barrels have reappeared – in a warehouse that was sealed in 2020 and broken into.
The 2.5 tons of uranium that went missing in Libya have turned up again, according to the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA). The ten barrels of uranium ore concentrate were found about five kilometers from where they were originally stored, LNA spokesman Chaled Mahjub said. The camp was located near the border with Chad and was sealed by the UN nuclear regulatory agency IAEA in 2020. Mahjub suggested that thieves from Chad had robbed the camp and later left the barrels. The containers would be kept until the IAEA sent its specialists into the country.
Yesterday, Wednesday, the IAEA informed its member states that the uranium could no longer be found. The UN agency later said it was trying to verify reports of the find. A total of ten containers of so-called yellowcake were missing. “Yellowcake” is uranium compounds in the form of yellow-orange, coarse powder. It can be used in a further processed form for nuclear power plants and in a higher enriched form for the construction of nuclear weapons.
Under the then ruler Muammar Gaddafi, more than 2000 tons of uranium ore concentrate were imported from neighboring Niger in the 1970s and 80s. After his fall in 2011, Libya has not yet come to rest. Since 2014, the country has been divided between rival civil war factions in the east and west.
The LNA, led by its leader Chalifa Haftar, controls the east of the country and denies the legitimacy of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. Efforts to reunify Libya have stalled since a ceasefire in 2020.