Libyan armed group says barrels of missing natural uranium recovered | CNN
CNN
–
A Libyan armed group has claimed to have found barrels of natural uranium. went missing In southern Libya
Khaled al-Mahjub, a spokesman for the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA), said on Facebook that the barrels were found 3 miles (5 km) from a warehouse where they were being stored.
A video posted by Mahjoub shows a man wearing a hazmat suit audibly counting 18 blue barrels that are reportedly missing. Natural Uranium. The IAEA said “10 drums” were missing from the warehouse.
A total of 2.5 tonnes of natural uranium ore was reported missing in the form of concentrate by the International Atomic Energy Agency. [IAEA] This week, inspectors conducted verification activities on Tuesdays.
“We are aware of media reports that materials have been found, and the agency is actively working to verify them,” the IAEA said on Thursday. CNN contacted the IAEA to confirm whether the barrels found by the LNA are the same ones reported missing by the UN nuclear watchdog.
Mahjoub said in a post on Facebook that the barrels were stored in a secure warehouse in southern Libya, but guards were kept further away due to concerns about radioactivity.
A barrel-sized hole was found cut in the side of the storage warehouse, Mahjoob added.
Mahjoob claimed that a group from Chad might have been responsible for stealing the barrel, mistaking it for weapons, but left the barrel after not knowing exactly what was inside. The LNA did not provide evidence to support this claim.
The group also said the forces were tasked with guarding the warehouse after an IAEA team visited the warehouse in 2020 and marked barrels containing uranium.
gave IAEA He said the missing uranium “poses very little radiological risk but needs to be handled safely.”
“The loss of information about the current location of nuclear material could present a radiological risk as well as nuclear security concerns,” the IAEA said before the LNA statement.
Libya has had little peace or stability since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. The country was divided between warring factions in the east and west in 2014.