“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity” ~llaw
Jun 20, 2025
Satellite image shows buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan, Iran May 17, 2025. Planet Labs PBC via REUTERS/File Photo
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY and the GLOBAL RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
In My Opinion
This article from “Reuters” is a primer concerning the present nuclear and other dangers to the lives of humanity and other life relative to the Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. It is definitely worth the reading for understanding the situation as it exists presently, but should the USA join the fray, all hell could break loose.
But still the missile exchanges between the two two warring countries, Israel and Iran, are taking their tolls on innocent civilians in both countries, which, in my opinion, should never have happened. Don’t forget that Israel, not Iran, started this war, and Israel is begging the US to help them out, but Trump has so far failed to respond in either way whether to also attack Iran.
The other thing to remember is that Trump is obviously the ultimate bad-guy in this entire fiasco, and it was his actions, or lack of them, that apparently caused Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear buildings and facilities when Trump’s invitation to Iran — in early May — to jointly reach a negotiated agreement relative to the ongoing nuclear facility’s operations and uses that would satisfy both countries, but also supposedly including Israel.
However, Trump’s constant interference with the terms and conditions of the talks and demanding contradictory and impossible alternatives for Iran’s ability to allow them to operate their existing nuclear power plants stymied the talks and the meetings were left stranded in a vacuum with no hope for a mutual agreement created by Trump’s demands.
During the breakdowns in these talks, Trump had advised Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu at least twice to hold off on any attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities because the talks were “close” to reaching a mutually acceptable “deal”. It appears that eventually Netanyahu lost his patience with the delays in the negotiations and attacked Iran without consulting Trump and the US.
So that brings us to where we are today, and world fears and rumors are flying everywhere, but the one deplorable fact is that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of innocent civilians of both countries are being killed over a nuclear facilities use agreement that was never properly negotiated and therefore never agreed to, and one man caused it to fail. ~llaw
What are the nuclear contamination risks from Israel’s attacks on Iran?
By Andrew Macaskill, Federico Maccioni and Pesha Magid
June 20, 20257:25 AM PDT Updated 4 hours ago
Russia built Bushehr, Iran’s only operating nuclear power plant, and hundreds of Russian specialists work there.
What nuclear contamination risks from Israel’s attacks on Iran?
LONDON/DUBAI, June 19 (Reuters) – Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations so far pose only limited risks of contamination, experts say. But they warn that any attack on the country’s nuclear power station at Bushehr could cause a nuclear disaster.
Israel says it is determined to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities in its military campaign, but that it also wants to avoid any nuclear disaster in a region that is home to tens of millions of people and produces much of the world’s oil.
Fears of catastrophe rippled through the Gulf on Thursday when the Israeli military said it had struck a site in Bushehr on the Gulf coast – home to Iran’s only nuclear power station – only to say later that the announcement was a mistake.
WHAT HAS ISRAEL HIT SO FAR?
Israel has announced attacks on nuclear sites in Natanz, Isfahan, Arak and Tehran itself. Israel says it aims to stop Iran building an atom bomb. Iran denies ever seeking one.
The international nuclear watchdog IAEA has reported damage to the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, to the nuclear complex at Isfahan, including the Uranium Conversion Facility, and to centrifuge production facilities in Karaj and Tehran.
Israel has also attacked Arak, also known as Khondab.
The IAEA said Israeli military strikes hit the Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor, which was under construction and had not begun operating, and damaged the nearby plant that makes heavy water. The IAEA said that it was not operational and contained no nuclear material, so there were no radiological effects.
In an update of its assessment on Friday, the IAEA said key buildings at the site were damaged. Heavy-water reactors can be used to produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make an atom bomb.
WHAT RISKS DO THESE STRIKES POSE?
Peter Bryant, a professor at the University of Liverpool in England who specialises in radiation protection science and nuclear energy policy, said he is not too concerned about fallout risks from the strikes so far.
He noted that the Arak site was not operational while the Natanz facility was underground and no release of radiation was reported. “The issue is controlling what has happened inside that facility, but nuclear facilities are designed for that,” he said. “Uranium is only dangerous if it gets physically inhaled or ingested or gets into the body at low enrichments,” he said.
Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at London think tank RUSI, said attacks on facilities at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle – the stages where uranium is prepared for use in a reactor – pose primarily chemical, not radiological risks.
At enrichment facilities, UF6, or uranium hexafluoride, is the concern. “When UF6 interacts with water vapour in the air, it produces harmful chemicals,” she said.
The extent to which any material is dispersed would depend on factors including the weather, she added. “In low winds, much of the material can be expected to settle in the vicinity of the facility; in high winds, the material will travel farther, but is also likely to disperse more widely.”
The risk of dispersal is lower for underground facilities.
Simon Bennett, who leads the civil safety and security unit at the University of Leicester in the UK, said risks to the environment were minimal if Israel hits subterranean facilities because you are “burying nuclear material in possibly thousands of tonnes of concrete, earth and rock”.
Item 1 of 2 Satellite image shows buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan, Iran May 17, 2025. Planet Labs PBC via REUTERS/File Photo
[1/2]Satellite image shows buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan, Iran May 17, 2025. Planet Labs PBC via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
WHAT ABOUT NUCLEAR REACTORS?
The major concern would be a strike on Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr.
Richard Wakeford, Honorary Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Manchester, said that while contamination from attacks on enrichment facilities would be “mainly a chemical problem” for the surrounding areas, extensive damage to large power reactors “is a different story”.
Radioactive elements would be released either through a plume of volatile materials or into the sea, he added.
James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said an attack on Bushehr “could cause an absolute radiological catastrophe”, but that attacks on enrichment facilities were “unlikely to cause significant off-site consequences”.
Before uranium goes into a nuclear reactor it is barely radioactive, he said. “The chemical form uranium hexafluoride is toxic … but it actually doesn’t tend to travel large distances and it’s barely radioactive. So far the radiological consequences of Israel’s attacks have been virtually nil,” he added, while stating his opposition to Israel’s campaign.
Bennett of the University of Leicester said it would be “foolhardy for the Israelis to attack” Bushehr because they could pierce the reactor, which would mean releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere.
WHY ARE GULF STATES ESPECIALLY WORRIED?
For Gulf states, the impact of any strike on Bushehr would be worsened by the potential contamination of Gulf waters, jeopardizing a critical source of desalinated potable water.
In the UAE, desalinated water accounts for more than 80% of drinking water, while Bahrain became fully reliant on desalinated water in 2016, with 100% of groundwater reserved for contingency plans, according to authorities.
Qatar is 100% dependent on desalinated water.
In Saudi Arabia, a much larger nation with a greater reserve of natural groundwater, about 50% of the water supply came from desalinated water as of 2023, according to the General Authority for Statistics.
While some Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have access to more than one sea to draw water from, countries like Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait are crowded along the shoreline of the Gulf with no other coastline.
“If a natural disaster, oil spill, or even a targeted attack were to disrupt a desalination plant, hundreds of thousands could lose access to freshwater almost instantly,” said Nidal Hilal, Professor of Engineering and Director of New York University Abu Dhabi’s Water Research Center.
“Coastal desalination plants are especially vulnerable to regional hazards like oil spills and potential nuclear contamination,” he said.
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There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
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TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS DIGEST, Friday, (06/20/2025)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Iran’s 9 Nuclear Scientists, 9 Different Locations, All Killed At Once; Israel’s Ops Narnia | Watch
YouTube
Under “Operation Narnia,” Israel assassinated 9 of Iran’s top 10 nuclear scientists simultaneously while they slept, using undisclosed special …
Top House Armed Services Democrat advises against U.S. military strike in Iran – NPR
NPR
In a conversation with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Rep. Adam Smith spoke about his views on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program and whether Congress …
Israeli Strikes Target Iranian Nuclear Facility – WSJ
WSJ
… Things with Kim Strassel Podcast · Opinion Video · Notable & Quotable … All · 3:42.
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor, hit by an Israeli airstrike, was part of Tehran’s nuclear deal
AP News
… reactor had no uranium fuel and saw no nuclear release from the strike. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear …
US agencies take action to streamline nuclear roll-out
World Nuclear News
Separate announcements from the US Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission point towards streamlining the pathway to deployment …
Israel is targeting Iran’s nuclear uranium enrichment plants. Here are the contamination risks
ABC News
Israel has targeted five key Iranian nuclear facilities over the past week. Experts say attacks on uranium enrichment plants are mainly a …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
The Iran Emergency – The New York Times
The New York Times
Iran has spent decades building its nuclear program. It has enriched uranium — to generate energy, it said — but not yet enough to make bombs. Still, .
IAEA Chief Grossi Warns of Grave Nuclear Risks Amid Iran-Israel Conflict in Emergency UN Address
Kurdistan24
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In an urgent address to the United Nations on Friday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano …
Iraq assesses risks of nuclear emergency amid Israel-Iran conflict – Yahoo
Yahoo
The new German government will not undertake a “renaissance of nuclear energy,” Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said on Thursday. On the sidelines of …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
US troops in the Middle East could face increased threats amid Iran conflict – Fox News
Fox News
As of January, approximately 13,500 U.S. troops are based there and primarily are focused on eliminating the threat of ISIS, according to the U.S. …
What are the nuclear contamination risks from Israel’s attacks on Iran? | Reuters
Reuters
What are the nuclear contamination risks from Israel’s attacks on Iran? … Israel-Iran air war enters second week as Europe pushes diplomacy. 2 …
Fact Focus: Israeli strikes on Iran nuclear sites pose limited radiation risks – AP News
AP News
Israel-Hamas war Russia-Ukraine War Español China Asia Pacific Latin America Europe Africa … Tariff threats, wars will slow but not collapse global …
Nuclear War
NEWS
Declassified map shows which US cities would be first hit by nuclear bomb – Irish Star
Irish Star
The map shows a harrowing scenario with a potential casualty rate of 75 percent in the event of a nuclear attack. Article continues below. Similar …
What Happens if Trump Decides to Strike Iran or Assassinate Its Leader?
The New York Times
… war. Iran could negotiate. Before Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear program and other targets last week, Iran and the United …
What could happen if Trump does decide to bomb Iran’s main nuclear site – NBC News
NBC News
If Trump bombs Iran’s Fordo nuclear enrichment site, the main risk would be from the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb itself rather than radiation …
IAEA News
IAEA Chief Grossi Warns of Grave Nuclear Risks Amid Iran-Israel Conflict in Emergency UN Address
Kurdistan24
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In an urgent address to the United Nations on Friday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano …