Latest news with #IsraelStrikes
CNN
2 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
‘The Iranian leadership has no good options,' says expert
Christiane Amanpour speaks with Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group about the options facing Iran's government after Israel's strikes.
Al Arabiya
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Explainer: What are the nuclear contamination risks from Israel's attacks on Iran?
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 specializes 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 vapor 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.' 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.
CNN
19 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Watch: CNN investigates Israel's strikes on key Iranian officials — and their civilian toll
Israel's strikes not only took out top Iranian leaders, they also caused civilian deaths. CNN's Katie Polglase breaks down the human toll at the locations where top Iranian officials were killed.
CNN
19 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Watch: CNN investigates Israel's strikes on key Iranian officials — and their civilian toll
Israel's strikes not only took out top Iranian leaders, they also caused civilian deaths. CNN's Katie Polglase breaks down the human toll at the locations where top Iranian officials were killed.
The National
a day ago
- Politics
- The National
Confusion over Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant after mixed messages from Israel on strikes
Israel said it struck Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant along the Gulf coast on Thursday, potentially a major escalation in the war, but an Israeli military official later backtracked by saying "it was a mistake" to have said it was hit. The confusion came as Israel launched further strikes against Iranian nuclear targets on the seventh day of the war. An assault on the Bushehr power plant, which is located near the UAE and employs technicians from Russia, would widely be seen as a big step. In its latest comments, the Israeli military would only confirm that Israel had hit the Natanz, Isfahan and Arak nuclear sites in Iran. Pressed on Bushehr, an Israeli military official said he could neither confirm nor deny that Israel had struck the location, where Iran has a reactor. Bushehr is Iran's only operating nuclear power plant. It uses Russian fuel that Moscow then takes back when it is spent to reduce proliferation risk. The head of Russia 's nuclear energy corporation Rosatom warned that an Israeli attack on Bushehr could lead to a "Chernobyl-style catastrophe". An attack on Bushehr would be "beyond... evil," Russia's state RIA news agency cited Alexei Likhachev as saying. "If there is a strike on the operational first power unit, it will be a catastrophe comparable to Chernobyl." Mr Likhachev was referring to the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when a reactor exploded at Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine. Russia has evacuated some of its specialists from Bushehr, he said, but the core workforce of hundreds of people remained on site. "We are prepared for any scenario, including the rapid evacuation of all our employees," Mr Likhachev added. President Vladimir Putin told journalists in the early hours of Thursday that Israel had promised Russia that Moscow's workers – who are building more nuclear facilities at the Bushehr site – would be safe, even as Israel tries to degrade Iran's nuclear capabilities by force. It came as the Iran-Israel war entered its seventh day, with a barrage of Iranian missiles hitting Israel on Thursday morning. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to press on with Israel's biggest attack on Iran until its nuclear programme is destroyed, said Tehran's "tyrants" would pay the "full price".
