New clear danger
Hitting working nuclear facilities, as Israel is doing & US may do, is reckless, given the chance of radiation leak
Aug will mark 80 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in over 2.2L deaths. The aftermath affected victor, vanquished and the rest, and almost all nations agreed that nukes must not spread. The 'Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons', or NPT, resulted from this consensus in 1970. Iran was among its original signatories, Israel was not. And the pact has held up well, with only nine nuclear-armed states so far. All significant nuclear events since Nagasaki – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima – have been accidents in times of peace. And each one has led to enhanced safeguards.
But an old recklessness is creeping back. Soon after it invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022, Russia shelled and seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe's largest. Luckily, there was no radiation leak. And last Friday, Israel bombed three of Iran's major nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow. Now it has bombed Iran's Arak nuclear reactor, while the world's attention is riveted on Trump's plan to pulverise Fordow with 'bunker buster' bombs. These are extremely irresponsible and dangerous moves, as damage to an operational nuclear site can result in another Chernobyl.
One thought this cavalier attitude had become taboo a long time ago. But it's like 1981 again when Israel destroyed Iraq's brand-new, French-made Osirak reactor at the Tuwaitha complex on the same pretext of self-preservation that it's been brandishing against Iran for decades. But Osirak was still a month away from being fuelled up. The Israelis themselves admitted they couldn't have touched it afterwards for fear of blanketing Baghdad with radiation. They exercised care in 2007 also, when they destroyed Syria's under-construction al-Kibar facility.
US was so upset with Israel's 1981 raid it had termed it a 'source of utmost concern'. Now, Putin, Bibi and Trump have no qualms at all about attacking functioning reactors. The last time US did something more irresponsible was during the 1991 Gulf War when it destroyed two operational reactors at Tuwaitha. What will throwing caution to the wind now, after 34 years, achieve? Will it weaken Iran's resolve to make a bomb? Unlikely. In fact, Iran has already indicated its intent to exit NPT. If it does, it will be a setback for the whole non-proliferation consensus. Many other countries that have been watching these developments with alarm will think it prudent to get their own nuclear shield. We're 89 seconds from midnight on the 'Doomsday Clock'. A nuclearised world will only push us closer.
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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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