Japanese firm sold Libya uranium conversion plant

No name given for the Japanese company. Anybody know what Japanese company
might possess such capability? Mitsubishi comes to mind. They have divisions
that are involved in nearly everything.
Dave

VIENNA, March 12 (Reuters) - A company from Japan, the only country to be
attacked with an atomic bomb, sold Libya machinery in the 1980s that Tripoli
used in its unsuccessful attempt to build a nuclear weapon, diplomats and
nuclear experts said.

In December, Libya announced it was abandoning its nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons programmes and would dismantle them with the help of U.S.,
British and international experts.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began weapons inspections in
Libya in late December and issued a report last month in which it described how
Libya had acquired "from abroad" a pilot uranium conversion plant that could be
used to prepare uranium for the enrichment process.

"It was a Japanese company," a nuclear expert told Reuters. Several Western
diplomats who follow the IAEA said the firm was Japanese.

The Japanese mission to the United Nations neither confirmed nor denied it, but
Shigeru Umetsu, the mission's first secretary emphasised that Japan did not
take non-proliferation lightly.

"Although we cannot comment on the specific case of Libya, I can assure you
that Japan has always taken the issue of non-proliferation seriously and has
implemented strict measures to prevent proliferation," he told Reuters in an
email.

A February 24 report on inspections in Libya written by IAEA chief Mohamed
ElBaradei made it clear Libya's weapons programme was much more extensive than
previously thought. Tripoli had even managed to produce a small amount of
bomb-grade plutonium.

Libya's uranium conversion research was among the country's many undeclared
activities connected to its weapons programme.

Diplomats said the Japanese sale of the conversion equipment, made to order
according to specifications from Libya, is something that should have set alarm
bells ringing in Japan and should have been reported to the IAEA at the time.

"It's certainly not only something that should raise eyebrows, it's something
that would have to be declared," said Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the
Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

SOLD DIRECTLY TO LIBYA

Companies and individuals from Europe, the United States, Africa, the Middle
East and Asia are known to have supplied Libya, Iran and North Korea with
sensitive nuclear technology via an elaborate black market linked to the father
of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan.

However, in the case of the conversion plant, the deal was not arranged by
middlemen seeking to disguise the identify of the end user, diplomats said. The
Japanese firm agreed directly with Libya on the sale of the plant in 1984.

The deal took place before the 1988 mid-air bombing of an airliner over
Lockerbie, Scotland, brought international sanctions and isolation for the
North African state. Libya has paid compensation to the victims.

However, at the time Libya was known to have supported the Irish Republican
Army (IRA) with funds and arms for its war against British forces in Northern
Ireland.

Uranium conversion equipment is used to convert natural uranium into a more
purified form so that it can eventually be enriched for use in a power reactor
-- or in atomic weapons.

Libya never managed to convert uranium successfully into uranium hexafluoride,
the uranium product fed into centrifuges for the enrichment.

After delivery as six portable modules in 1986, the plant was moved around the
country "for security reasons" several times before being dismantled and
removed from the country when the disarmament process began in December.

On Wednesday, Libya signed the IAEA Additional Protocol permitting intrusive,
snap inspections of its nuclear facilities and vowed it would never pursue an
atom bomb. The IAEA board commended its actions to the U.N. Security Council.

03/12/04 07:14 ET