US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities won't lead to another Chernobyl: experts
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.
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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.
3 President Trump addressed the nation Saturday after unleashing airstrikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Reuters
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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.'
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'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 world at last.'
3 Iran's Ishafan facility was one of three hit by American airstrikes.
Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images
The nature of the material in Iran is a key reason a nuclear fallout-type event is unlikely.
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'With uranium … the radiation doesn't really travel very far,' Prof Claire Corkhill, chair in Mineralogy and Radioactive Waste Management at the University of Bristol, told the BBC.
Uranium's toxicity would wreak havoc on the human body if it were ingested, or if the particles from the dangerous substances were inhaled — meaning those close to the site of the bombings could face some health risks, she noted.
But another expert insisted that while there might be impacts in a 'very local area,' the bombing shouldn't create 'a massive environmental fallout.'
'If there was an incident and the centrifuges were to release the uranium hexafluoride, the gas contained within the centrifuges, then it would be a really severe chemical incident,' Prof Simon Middleburgh, a nuclear materials scientist from Bangor University, told the outlet.
Iran's uranium was well on its way to being concentrated enough for a nuclear weapon, according to the IAEA.
3 Natanz was another facility struck Saturday night.
Satellite image ©2025 Maxar Technologies/AFP via Getty Images
But blasting a rocket into stockpiles of enriched uranium would not pose risk of a 'nuclear incident.'
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'Highly enriched uranium is about three times more radioactive than non-enriched uranium,' said Prof. Jim Smith, from the University of Portsmouth, who has studied the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. 'But … neither of them are particularly densely radioactive.
'It wouldn't cause a major environmental contamination problem.'
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19 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump's school pressure campaign
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Chicago Tribune
20 minutes ago
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The Hill
20 minutes ago
- The Hill
The scandal that could finally end Trump
President Trump has survived everything. Two impeachments, four criminal indictments, a conviction on 34 felony counts, civil lawsuits, the 'Access Hollywood' tape, Jan. 6, classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and an assassination attempt that left him bloodied but unbowed. If cats have nine lives, Trump seems to have 900. He is political kryptonite in reverse — every scandal that should have destroyed him only made him stronger. But Jeffrey Epstein might be different. For the first time in his presidency, Trump isn't fighting the media, the Democrats or 'the deep state.' He's fighting his own base. The MAGA faithful — who stood by him through porn actress payouts, impeachments, indictments and insurrections — are now asking if they were played. When your most loyal believers start calling you a liar, the ground doesn't just shift. It cracks. The scandal exploded when Trump's Justice Department concluded that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 and had no 'client list.' 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The paper trail and testimonies don't hint. If anything, they scream. This wasn't a one-off handshake. It was a bond forged in secrecy, in appetite, and in mutual silence. Trump insists he cut ties. The evidence suggests otherwise. These weren't just two men in proximity. They were two men who understood how to navigate the same shadows. And now the believers — those who thought Trump would expose the filth — are staring down a truth they can't absorb. The man they believed was fighting the cabal may have been keeping its secrets. The disillusionment is no longer political. It's existential. The myth is cracking. And the messiah is starting to look like just another man. The fractures are spreading. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino clashed with Bondi at the White House over the handling of the Epstein files and took a day off work after the confrontation. When your own FBI leadership is publicly feuding with your attorney general, you've lost control of the narrative. Trump's usual survival tactics won't work here because he can't blame the 'fake news media' when his own supporters are demanding answers. He can't deflect to his political opponents when the questions come from within his own movement. He can't claim persecution when he's the one controlling the Justice Department. The establishment Republicans are rallying around him, as they always do. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have expressed confidence in Bondi. But establishment support means nothing when you've lost your base, and Trump's power doesn't come from senators and congressmen — it comes from the millions of Americans who see him as their champion against corruption. Now those same Americans are asking what they never thought they would: Was it all a lie? If Trump came to drain the swamp, why is he shielding its filthiest creature? If he vowed to expose the elite, why is his Justice Department sweeping away the evidence? If he was the outsider, the hammer against corruption, why does he now sound like every other politician begging people to forget? The Epstein scandal strikes at the heart of Trump's identity. He didn't just promise change — he promised retribution. To be the wrecking ball, the purifier, the one man who couldn't be bought or compromised. But when it came time to prove it, he didn't choose justice. He chose silence. And now, his base is waking up to the betrayal. The armor has cracked. The mask is slipping. And the man they thought was different is starting to look just like the rest. Every other scandal in Trump's career involved actions that occurred in the political arena or could be dismissed as partisan warfare. But Epstein operates in a different moral universe. This isn't about tax returns or classified documents. This is about the sexual exploitation of children by powerful men who thought they were untouchable. Trump has always survived by attacking his accusers and changing the subject. But how do you attack grieving parents? How do you change the subject from child trafficking? How do you spin your way out of enabling a monster? The answer is: you don't. For the first time in his political career, Trump faces a scandal that cannot be tweeted away, litigated into submission or dismissed as a political hit job. The Epstein files represent the one truth that even Trump cannot deny or deflect.
