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15 March 2004

U.S. Energy Secretary Displays Libyan Nuclear Arms At Oak Ridge

Says all ingredients were available for a nuclear weapons program

By Todd Bullock
Washington File Staff Writer

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham showed reporters nuclear weapons material retrieved from Libya at a Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on March 15.

"All of the ingredients were available for a weapons program. Happily, this equipment is no longer in Libya," Secretary Abraham said.

Examples of material shown to reporters included aluminum casings that would have enclosed high-speed centrifuges to separate weapons fuel from ordinary uranium gas, according to Abraham.

Abraham said that the United States removed 4,000 centrifuges from Libya. He added that a uranium enrichment facility so equipped could produce enough nuclear material each year for several nuclear weapons.

The nuclear equipment was part of a shipment of 55,000 tons of material that the United States removed from Libya in January, after Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi agreed to end his nuclear program and give up the nuclear equipment.

Qadhafi publicly gave up his weapons of mass destruction programs in December 2003 following an incident in which U.S. agents seized a ship carrying thousands more centrifuge parts bound for Libya in October 2003.

The first shipment flown out of Libya included some of the most sensitive items in Libya's nuclear program, including three canisters of uranium hexafluoride gas. A ship carrying 500 tons of cargo, including the rest of Libya's nuclear weapons equipment, is scheduled to arrive at a North Carolina port in late March.

All of Libya's nuclear equipment is being held at the Energy Department's Y-12 facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL conducts basic and applied research and development to create scientific knowledge; increase availability of clean, abundant energy; restore and protect the environment; and contribute to national security.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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