In Libya, about 2.5 tons of uranium ore concentrate have disappeared from a deposit. Inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovered this week that the material stored in ten barrels was no longer in the intended location, as an IAEA spokesman confirmed on Thursday night.

"The Atomic Energy Agency will take further steps to clarify under what circumstances the nuclear material was removed and where it is currently located," the spokesman said in Vienna. The IAEA Board of Governors had been informed.

Uranium ore concentrate is weakly radioactive. However, no nuclear chain reaction can be triggered in the material. In order to use the concentrate for nuclear power plants or even for nuclear weapons, it would first have to be further processed in complex technical plants in a series of steps.

Libya is in chaos and political instability because of its long-standing civil war. In 2003, the North African country abandoned its secret program to develop nuclear weapons. Under the then ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi, more than 1970 tons of uranium ore concentrate were imported from neighboring Niger in the 80s and 2000s.