Archyde.com quoted the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a statement to member states, as saying that its inspectors had discovered the loss of about 2.5 tons of natural uranium from a site in Libya that is no longer under government control.
The agency’s director general, Rafael Grossi, said in a confidential statement that the agency’s inspectors discovered, during an inspection on Tuesday, the absence of “10” cylinders containing about 2.5 tons of natural uranium, at a site where Libya announced its presence, without the agency revealing the location of the site.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that not knowing the whereabouts of the missing material in Libya is dangerous and raises nuclear safety concerns.
The agency confirmed that it would conduct further verification procedures to clarify the circumstances of the removal of these materials and their current location.
In September 2016, during the rule of the Presidential Council of the Government of National Accord, Libya officially confirmed that it had got rid of its chemical weapons and the arrival of the last shipment of them to the German port of Bremen, thus announcing the end of its obligations towards the Chemical Weapons Convention, which it joined in 2004.
In 2004, Libya’s stockpile of mustard gas and chemical precursors used in the manufacture of chemical weapons was estimated at 24 tons, according to an official statement by the National Authority to Follow up on the Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention affiliated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
And Libya had abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 during the reign of Muammar Gaddafi, after obtaining centrifuges that help in the process of enriching uranium in a step that was considered “progress” towards building a nuclear bomb, according to the IAEA.
Source: Archyde.com Agency + Ministry of Foreign Affairs + Libya Al-Ahrar