US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities wont lead to another Chernobyl: experts

The US launched devastating strikes that “obliterated” Iranian nuclear facilities Saturday night — but don’t expect another Chernobyl, experts said.President Trump ordered strikes on three nuclear sites inside Iran, where International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have found uranium purified to near weapons grade.Bunker-buster bombs are believed to have wiped out the Fordow facility, while 30 Tomahawk missiles fired from submarines 400 miles away struck Natanz and Isfahan.But the hits on Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow — Iran’s most secure nuclear enrichment facility, which was buried 300 feet inside a mountain — shouldn’t spark panic over possible nuclear fallout.Experts in radiation hazards say there is little risk of widespread contamination such as what took place on April 26, 1986, when an infamous power surge and subsequent fire at Russia’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant released massive amounts of deadly radiation into the air, killing 31 and causing widespread contamination and long-term health impacts.Chernobyl is widely considered the worst nuclear disaster in world history.“This isn’t a Chernobyl scenario,” author Aimen Dean posted to X.“So, in layman’s terms: this isn’t ‘hot’ nuclear fuel undergoing fission,” he wrote.“It’s uranium in various stages of enrichment, and even a military strike that destroys centrifuges or disperses material is unlikely to produce a large-scale, long-lasting fallout event.The US targeted enrichment facilities — not nuclear reactors — deep within Iran, buffered by mountains in the north and the Caspian Sea in the Northeast, so “there may be localized contamination, but not a region-wide radiological disaster.”“There’s no fallout threat from this because it’s all underneath,” according to Atlantic Council’s Alex Plitsas.“The president just prevented World War III with this decisive action.

This is the ‘strength’ in ‘peace through strength’ boldly shown to the ...