Ten containers missing
IAEA: 2.5 tons of uranium disappeared in Libya
3/16/2023 2:52 am
During an inspection in Libya, experts from the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found that ten yellowcake containers were missing. The powdery mixture of uranium compounds can be used in a more highly enriched form for nuclear weapons.
2.5 tons of uranium disappeared in Libya. The material is “not where it should be, according to the authorities,” said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Wednesday evening. This was found on Tuesday during a review by IAEA experts. It was not disclosed where exactly the review took place in Libya.
A total of ten containers with so-called yellowcake were missing, explained IAEA Director Rafael Grossi in the letter to the member countries. Additional checks would now be made “to clarify the circumstances of the disappearance of the nuclear material and its current whereabouts”.
Yellowcake is uranium compounds in the form of a 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.
Libya abandoned its nuclear weapons development program in 2003 under longtime ruler Muammar al-Gaddaffi. Chaos has reigned since his fall in 2011, and the country has repeatedly been shaken by severe violence.