Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons by Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer

Author:Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer [Braut-Hegghammer, Målfrid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Security (National & International), History, Military, Nuclear Warfare, International Relations, Arms Control
ISBN: 9781501706455
Google: GTH3DAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell
Published: 2016-08-01T13:57:05+00:00

REQUESTING A RESEARCH REACTOR

In December 1970, the Ministry of Industry was contemplating not only a program for uranium exploration but also a nuclear energy program. In late 1971 and the spring of 1972, several requests for further IAEA assistance were made by the Department of International Organizations and Technical Cooperation at the Ministry of Unity and Foreign Affairs. The University of Tripoli also wanted to expand its resources in the nuclear field and, in 1971, its Physics Department requested assistance from the IAEA to acquire a 2-megawatt research reactor with supporting facilities. IAEA experts saw this request, and especially the additional facilities requested by the Libyans, as an indication that the state was “beginning to embark upon studies in atomic energy.”129

The University of Tripoli’s Physics Department wanted the research reactor to be located in the Tripoli area, as part of a broader effort to develop research and training resources in the field of nuclear energy, including “facilities for material testing and isotope production.”130 The request was framed as part of a broad expansion of Libya’s technical and scientific education. As the IAEA report noted: “Many other small projects requested by the Libyan University for Benghazi Campus and Tripoli are under study and are of major importance. The execution of these projects requires several tens of millions of dinars which will constitute a heavy burden on the Libyan budget.”131

The university explained to IAEA representatives that they wanted such a reactor for training and research in the field of nuclear energy.132 The Libyan nuclear establishment saw the next logical step as acquiring a power reactor, which they expected to obtain during the early 1980s. The IAEA challenged this assumption, and an agency expert noted in a 1973 report to the Libyan government:

It is recognized that a nuclear research centre, including a research reactor, can contribute greatly to the development of a nuclear power programme [but] it is not a strictly necessary prerequisite to the introduction of nuclear power. Concern was expressed regarding the high drain which would be caused on already scarce scientific manpower. A research reactor did not, therefore, appear to be of a high order of priority. The general view was that while a research reactor may well be incorporated into long-term plans, it was realized and agreed that a programme which would be of more immediate importance and would make a far greater contribution to the country’s general development would be one in radioisotope applications in agriculture, medicine, industry, etc.133

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