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UN Watchdog Raises Alarm Over Missing Uranium in Libya

UN Watchdog Raises Alarm Over Missing Uranium in Libya

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced on Thursday that approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium have gone missing from a previously declared site in Libya. The Vienna-based IAEA stated that safeguards inspectors had discovered the material was absent from a location in the state on Tuesday, leading to fears about safety and the potential for nuclear proliferation. While natural uranium cannot be used immediately for energy production or weapons, it can be refined over time to produce weapons-grade material. The IAEA has pledged to conduct further investigations into the incident in order to establish the circumstances of the removal and the current location of the material.

The missing uranium is believed to have been stored at Sabha, a previously declared site in southern Libya. The stockpile was originally part of dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s secret weapons program, with estimates suggesting that it totaled approximately 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium. While enriched uranium was removed from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake was left behind, and approximately 6,400 barrels of it were said to have been stored at Sabha by the UN in 2013. Sabha has grown increasingly lawless since the 2011 Arab Spring and is largely under the control of the Libyan National Army, led by General Khalifa Hifter.

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