Libya 'wants nuke capablity'
2004-02-24 11:55
Tripoli - UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei says that Libya wants to keep some nuclear capabilities for civilian purposes after it finishes dismantling its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
"They want to keep their research reactor, which is legitimate," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head ElBaradei told reporters after meeting Libyan Foreign Minister Abdulrahman Mohammed Shalgam.
He said the agency would support this once Libya "eliminates the military related programs" as it promised in an agreement with the United States and Britain on December 19.
The IAEA is the international community's main verification agency for nuclear matters, but the United States and Britain have been carrying out the actual removal and destruction of the Iranian WMD programs.
The research reactor located at the Tajura Nuclear Research Center currently uses 80 percent enriched uranium, a compound which can be used to make atomic bombs.
ElBaradei said he was discussing with the Libyans converting the reactor to use low enriched uranium, which would not be possibly weapon-grade.
"It's just a question of practicality, when and how they would get the replacement fuel because they would like to continue to have the reactor keep operating," he said.
The Libyans apparently would like to keep other facilities, such as a uranium conversion centre, but ElBaradei said he thought there would not be a problem in dismantling them since Libya "has cooperated already in dismantling and removing all the sensitive aspects of (its) program" and would "dismantle that (remaining part) and also remove it."
ElBaradei was to meet later with the head of Libya's atomic energy program, Deputy Prime Minister Matoug Mohamed Matoug, with talks expected to touch on unraveling an international smuggling ring in atomic weapons equipment and technology.
ElBaradei was accompanied by IAEA nuclear weapons expert Jacques Baute, who has previously examined blueprints Libya had for making atomic weapons.
Baute said the blueprints were for "components" but that certain parts were lacking.
Libya's main contribution to non-proliferation may be to help trace the global nuclear black market run by the disgraced former head of Pakistan's nuclear program Abdul Qadeer Khan that was supplying Libya, as well as Iran and North Korea, with sensitive nuclear technology.
Information from Libya has been crucial in exposing the smuggling network and finding out what is going on with Iran's nuclear program, ElBaradei said.
- SAPA