Libya processed “small amount of plutonium”
Colonel Moamar Gadhafi’s Libya was close to making a nuclear bomb, the UN watchdog said Friday.
Libya reportedly derived technology and knowledge through the ‘black market’ to process uranium into plutonium.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a report said the ostracised ‘rogue state’ was able to ‘separate a small amount of plutonium,’ though the amount appeared to be less than the nearly seven pounds required to make a nuke.
The North African country in December announced it wanted to give up plans to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and rejoin the international community.
The report said Libya had imported nuclear material that it had hitherto failed to disclose.
Abdul Qadeer Khan, the ‘father’ of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, recently admitted to supplying nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Libya was able to buy many of the components needed to build a centrifuge to enrich uranium from the nuclear ‘supermarket’ operated by Mr Khan.
