The IAEA denounces the disappearance of 2.5 tons of uranium ore concentrate in Libya

March 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has denounced the disappearance of 2.5 tons of uranium at a facility in Libya after its inspectors carried out a visit earlier this week, without further clarification as to what. happened.

A spokesman for the agency has indicated in statements to the British television channel BBC has detailed that ten containers with concentrated uranium ore have disappeared from the facility, which has sparked concerns about the risk of radiation and for nuclear safety reasons.

Likewise, it has stated that the place where this uranium was stored is outside the control of the unity government, based in the capital, Tripoli, while stressing that it will act to “clarify the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of material nuclear power plant and its current location”.

Uranium ore concentrate is slightly radioactive, although a nuclear chain reaction cannot be caused from this material if it is not processed in complex facilities and through a series of steps for use in energy development. nuclear power or even the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Libya abandoned its program to develop nuclear weapons in 2003, after importing more than 2,000 tons of uranium ore concentrate from Niger in the 1970s and 1980s during the Muammar Gaddafi regime. The country has been plunged into instability since the capture and execution of Gaddafi in October 2011 in the framework of an armed uprising in line with the ‘Arab Spring’.

The political crisis in Libya worsened after the postponement of the elections scheduled for December 2021 and the decision of the House of Representatives to appoint Fazi Bashaga as prime minister by ending the term of the prime minister of unity, Abdul Hamid Dbeibé, which caused a new administrative bicephaly in the African country.

The unity government rejected the decision of the House of Representatives and maintained that Dbeibé will remain in office to implement his new ‘road map’ for holding elections. Dbeibé was elected as prime minister by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in February 2021, replacing the until then unity prime minister, Fayez Serraj.