The UN has announced that 2.5 tonnes of uranium are missing from a site in Libya, sparking global alarm over the whereabouts of this huge quantity, which in itself poses a dire risk to the entire Mediterranean.
The United Nations Nuclear Agency IAEA says the loss of uranium stockpile poses potential radiological risk and safety concerns.
The IAEA reported this week that 10 barrels of uranium ore concentrate were missing from Libya, raising the alarm among all relevant international agencies and Mediterranean countries.
The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that approximately 2.3 tonnes of natural uranium has been lost from a site in Libya that is not under government control.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the agency's member states this week that inspectors reported 10 barrels containing uranium ore concentrate were missing and "did not exist as previously declared."
The IAEA will conduct further activities "to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location," the agency said on Wednesday without elaborating.
"Loss of knowledge about the present location of nuclear material can create radiological risk as well as nuclear safety concerns," the IAEA said, adding that "complex logistics" were required to reach the site.
Libya in 2003, under leader Muammar Gaddafi, renounced its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program after secret talks with the United States and the United Kingdom.
Gaddafi's regime had acquired centrifuge devices that could enrich uranium as well as design information for a nuclear bomb, although the country made little progress toward building a nuclear weapon.
We remind you that ships with the Turkish flag are the only ones that move without being subject to EU control, with operation PEACE, in which Greece also participates.
There is a possibility that Ankara has been involved in this quantity of uranium, both for use by the Turkish authorities and for sale to Iran.
Political control in Libya remains divided between an interim government in the capital Tripoli in the west and another in the east backed by strongman Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The amount, and the area of storage, give us a lot to speculate about who is really involved, while what is certain is that an alarm has been raised to find where the uranium went and why.
