Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported the
theft of radiactive material from a site in Egypt designated to house the
nation’s first nuclear power plant.

The agency said a safe that contained radioactive material
was stolen during an attack of the Dabaa nuclear reactor construction site
on Jan. 13. IAEA said the Egyptian government was cooperating in efforts to
find the material.

“The sources were stolen not from an operating NPP [nuclear power plant], but from a laboratory at a construction site for an NPP that is not yet operational,” IAEA said.

In a statement on Jan. 19, the agency, based in Vienna, identified the stolen material as “low-level radioactive sources.” The statement did not say what the safe was doing in a laboratory in Dabaa, claimed by Bedouin tribes. Later, an official identified the stolen material as tools to calibrate radiation.

“The items that have gone missing are low-level radioactive sources,” IAEA said.

Dabaa, located along the Mediterranean coast, has been selected as the site of Egypt’s first nuclear energy plant. Cairo has drafted plans to construct between eight and 11 such facilities but delayed choosing a contractor.

Reports in Egypt’s state-owned media have been contradictory. The official Al Ahram daily asserted that harmful radioactive material was
stolen while Al Akhbar said inspectors concluded that no radioactive
material was taken by the looters.

“There was no evidence of any theft of radioactive material,” Al Akhbar
said.

  Bedouin, Dabaa, IAEA: Nuclear material stolen from Egyptian reactor site, International Atomic Energy Agency, Mediterranean coast