Around ten containers with uranium have disappeared in the civil war country Libya. This was announced by the UN nuclear regulatory agency after an inspection.
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”.
Can be used to build nuclear weapons
Yellowcake (in German: yellow cake) is uranium compounds in the form of 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. However, since its fall in 2011, Libya has not settled down. Since 2014, the country has been divided between rival civil war factions in the east and west
