2½ tons of uranium missing in Libya, prompting nuclear security fears

2½ tons of uranium goes missing in war-torn Libya, prompting nuclear security fears

  • The Atomic Energy Agency informed members of United Nations on Wednesday 
  • Each ton of uranium can be refined to 12lb of weapons-grade material over time 

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has revealed that about two-and-half tons of uranium has gone missing in war-torn Libya, prompting nuclear security fears.

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 before being spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.

However, each ton of natural uranium – if obtained by a group with the technological means and resources – can be refined to 12lb of weapons-grade material over time, experts say, making the recovery of the missing metal important for non-proliferation experts.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, informed member states on Wednesday about the missing uranium.

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’s director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi (pictured) informed UN member states on Wednesday about the missing uranium

‘Further activities will be conducted by the agency to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location.’

Reuters first reported on the IAEA warning about the missing Libyan uranium, saying the agency told members that reaching the site – which is not under government control – requires ‘complex logistics’.

The IAEA declined to offer more details on the missing uranium, but its acknowledgment that the metal went missing at a ‘previously declared site’ narrows the possibilities.

One such site is Sabha, 410 miles south east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, in the country’s lawless southern reaches of the Sahara Desert.

Libya under dictator Muammar Gaddafi stored thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium there for a once-planned conversion facility that was never built in his decades-long secret weapons programme.

Estimates put the Libyan stockpile at 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium under Gaddafi, who declared his nascent nuclear weapons programme to the world in 2003 to after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

While inspectors removed the last of the enriched uranium from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake remained behind, with the UN in 2013 estimating 6,400 barrels were stored at Sabha.

Each ton of natural uranium – if obtained by a group with the technological resources – can be refined to 12lb of weapons-grade material over time, experts say. Pictured: Libyan flag

American officials had worried that Iran could try to purchase the uranium from Libya, something Gaddafi’s top civilian nuclear official tried to reassure the US about, according to a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.

‘Stressing that Libya viewed the question as primarily a commercial one, (the official) noted that prices for uranium yellowcake on the world market had been increasing, and that Libya wanted to maximise its profit by properly timing the sale of its stockpile,’ then-ambassador Gene A Cretz wrote.

But the 2011 Arab Spring saw rebels topple Gaddafi and ultimately kill him. Sabha grew increasingly lawless, with African migrants crossing Libya saying some had been sold as slaves in the city, the UN reported.

In recent years, Sabha has largely been under the control of the self-styled Libyan National Army, headed by Khalifa Hifter. The general, who is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile during Gaddafi’s era, has been battling for control of Libya against a Tripoli-based government.

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