How does one lose 2.5 tons of uranium?
That seems to be the million-dollar question everyone is pondering, yet this is exactly what was reported to have happened in war-torn Libya yesterday.
According to a Reuters report, 5,000 pounds of uranium mysteriously disappeared from an unsecured location in Libya—this report was filed on March 16th.
Today we are seeing reports that an armed paramilitary group known as the Libyan National Army claims to have recovered and secured the missing uranium.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to believe the Libyan National Army or its spokesperson, Khaled Al Mahjoub, is being entirely truthful here—we have to take statements made by Middle Eastern paramilitary men with a grain of salt. …
Hopefully, Mahjoub is being truthful, but something tells me he isn’t. Here’s what is currently being reported:
5000 pounds of uranium goes missing and everyone is like pic.twitter.com/YK0O7lsnJ3
— Spencer James (@RonaldWash1776) March 16, 2023
“Tons of uranium missing from Libyan site, IAEA tells member states”
5000 pounds of uranium stored in territory outside gov't control magically vanishedhttps://t.co/u4sQcywToQ— Alisha’s Eternal Cubby (@ProfPlatypus) March 15, 2023
Reuters originally broke the story:
IAEA inspectors “found that 10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of UOC (uranium ore concentrate) previously declared by (Libya) … as being stored at that location were not present at the location,” the one-page statement said.
2.5 Tons Of Uranium Missing From Libya Amid Rival Government Crisis https://t.co/UBRQjGeu0c
— Mary Shubert (@mary_shubert) March 17, 2023
Today, a spokesperson from the Libyan National Army claimed that they had recovered the missing uranium, according to CNN:
A spokesman for the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), Khaled Al Mahjoub 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 showed a man wearing a hazmat suit vocally counting 18 blue barrels that allegedly contain the missing natural uranium. The IAEA had said that “10 drums” were missing from the warehouse.
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