Among the latest tranche of Wikileaks memos are an intriguing batch out of Tripoli, detailing the scientific cooperation provided to Libya by the US in exchange for the surrendering its uranium centrifuge programme and highly enriched uranium (HEU) from its 10MW research reactor at the Tajura Nuclear Research Centre.

A memo released earlier this week describes how the Libyan government received a multi-million-dollar regional nuclear medical centre in exchange for surrendering its nuclear material and enrichment equipment. The 1,200 square meter, US$26 million centre includes a spanking new cyclotron and a Positron Emission Tomography (PET-CT) machine complete with mood lighting and music to help patients relax.

That’s not all the Libyans got in exchange for their nuclear ambitions. According to the memo, they also received equipment for a water desalinization project, water resource management software, and a virtual science library. The Italian government also helped them convert an old bioweapons facility into a factory capable of churning out HIV/AIDS drugs (though the memos questioned the Libyan’s sincere interest in the project).

The memos also show that the world of scientific cooperation does not always go smoothly. On the 25 of November, 2009, the US embassy in Tripoli fired off a Secret memo warning of potential crisis in Libya. Four days earlier, the nation’s last 5.2 kilogrammes of Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU), was scheduled to leave the country on a Russian Antonov 124-100 cargo aircraft. The operation to take the fuel back to Russia, its country of origin, and convert the reactor to low enriched uranium was similar to one that I reported on late last year in Poland (in fact some of the same US Department of Energy officials were involved).

But unlike the Poland operation, things were not going smoothly. The Libyans were refusing to move the seven five-tonne casks that contained the HEU fuel. After days of delay, the Russian aircraft had turned back. DOE experts were warning that, if the casks were not moved by the end of December, they could crack, leaking their radioactive contents into the open.

Five days later, a second memo detailed a meeting between Embassy officials and Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, a son of the long-running dictator Muammar al-Qadhafi. Saif told officials that Libya was “fed up” with the way it was being treated by America. Among the long list of grievances was the US’s delay in helping with the nuclear medicine facility and other civil nuclear cooperation programmes.

Eventually the tussle did get cleared up (indeed Ali Gashut, the head of Libya’s Atomic Energy Establishment seemed “embarrassed” by the whole affair), and the HEU left the country. But the incident does illustrate how scientific cooperation is not always as smooth and loving as advocates make it out to be.

There’s another interesting subtext to the memos: The Libyans don’t seem to have used their new scientific kit very effectively. The medical centre was understaffed, and equipment for the desalination project was still in its boxes during an October 2009 visit.

Image: Tajura Nuclear Research Centre