On Thursday, the Libyan National Army (LNA) announced that it has found several barrels of uranium that were reported missing by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday.
In a statement, the LNA said ten drums containing the ore were found five kilometers from the storage warehouses, near the border with Chad.
On Wednesday, the Director-General of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Mariano Grossi announced that more than 2.5 tons of natural uranium were missing from a site in war-torn Libya, prompting nuclear security fears.
Natural uranium cannot immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel. The enrichment process typically requires the metal to be converted into a gas before being spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.
The Vienna-based IAEA informed member states on Wednesday about the missing uranium.
On Tuesday, “agency safeguard inspectors found that 10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate were not present as previously declared at a location in the state of Libya,” the IAEA said.
Under the rule of late longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya had stored thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium. This was for a once-planned conversion facility that was never built in his decades-long secret weapons program, according to the Daily Mail.
Estimates put the Libyan stockpile at 1,000 metric tons. Gaddafi declared his nascent nuclear weapons program to the world in 2003, after the US-led invasion of Iraq.
While inspectors removed the last of the enriched uranium from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake remained behind. In 2013, the UN estimated that 6,400 barrels were stored in Sebha.
Since Gaddafi was deposed in 2011, the country has been divided into competing political and military factions.
It is now split between an interim government in the capital, Tripoli, headed by Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, and another in the east, headed by Fathi Bashagha.
