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UNITED NATIONS — Iraq is appealing to the United Nations for help after learning insurgents seized nearly 40 kilograms of nuclear materials used for scientific research at a university in Mosul.

“These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts,” UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said.

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Iraq asked the UN for help to “stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad.”

But the UN’s nuclear agency said Thursday the nuclear material does not present a health, safety or proliferation risk.

Gill Tudor, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement that the organization’s experts believed the material — thought to be uranium — was “low-grade and would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk.”