Posted on 01/02/2013 12:46:36 PM PST by bayouranger
Iranian officials tell citizens to vacate city located near nuke site
Iranian officials have instructed residents of Isfahan to leave the city, renewing concerns that a nearby nuclear site could be leaking radioactive material.
An edict issued Wednesday by Iranian authorities orders Isfahan’s one-and-a-half million people to leave the city “because pollution has now reached emergency levels,” the BBC reported.
However, outside observers suspect that the evacuation order may corroborate previous reports indicating that a uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan had been leaking radioactive material.
Tehran went to great lengths in December to deny these reports, telling state-run media outlets that “the rumors about leaking and contamination at Isfahan’s [Uranium Conversion Facility] are not true at all.”
November reports indicated that a radioactive leak might have poisoned several workers at the nuclear plant, which converts highly toxic yellowcake uranium into material that could be used in the core of a nuclear weapon.
The head of Iran’s emergency services agency said at the time that residents have no reason to worry about possible contamination resulting from a possible leak.
Stories about the potential leak soon disappeared from state-run news websites, Trend reported in late November.
Iranian officials denied that a leak has occurred and blamed Western media outlets for creating “tumult” in the region.
Wednesday’s evacuation order is now fueling concerns that Iranian officials are trying to hide something, including further fallout from a possible radioactive leak.
“Pollution in Isfahan is a problem but in the past, Iranian authorities respond by closing schools and the government to keep people at home and let the pollution dissipate, not by evacuating people,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq who has written about Isfahan’s battle against pollution.
“Mass evacuations suggest a far more serious problem,” Rubin explained. “There are two possibilities here: There is a radiation leak and the regime is lying or there is really bad pollution and no one believes the regime’s explanations.”
Rubin also pointed out that Iranian officials have a history of lying to both Western officials and their own citizens.
It remains unclear whether the technology has been properly inspected for safety because Iran has denied Western officials access to many of its nuclear sites.
The nuclear site at Isfahan has been targeted for attack in the past.
An unexplained explosion at the plant in 2011 is reported to have damaged the facility.
The nuclear plant also sits on an active fault line. The city of Isfahan has been destroyed at least six times from past earthquakes, a point of concern among regional experts.
“Given that Iran is on an earthquake zone and has lost tens of thousands of people with regularity suggests that a devastating nuclear accident is only a matter of time,” said Rubin.
Explosion Near Iran’s Isfahan Nuclear Plant Reported
January 2, 2013 4:54 pm
http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/01/02/explosion-near-irans-isfahan-nuclear-plant-reported/
Maybe a criticality accident. It’s hard to imagine a leak of UF6, uranyl nitrate or anything like that resulting in the evacuation of a city - especially in a third-world craphole. OTOH a criticality with lots of nasty fission products could. Liquid system criticalities might have multiple excursions.
Welcome to the nuclear club! Remember kids, mass, moderation, geometry.
“maybe the mad mullahs will turn their country into a radioactive wasteland all by themselves”
More likely nuked by computer virus making machines go mad.
Ha-ha.
lol.
Very interesting.
I have a couple of sources in Istanbul, journalists, (well, a lot of sources in Istanbul, actually) who have military sources in Ishfahan and Tehran. I just inquired to them about this story.
I wonder what sort of info they’ll dig up.
“Stux” to be them, methinks.
1.5 million people is a lot of folks.
I always kinda hoped that GWB would flip a few nuclear cruise missiles at the enrichment sites, just before he left office. I fantasized his cover story: “We warned those stone aged misfits that plying with nukes was dangerous. Now they’ve gone and blown themselves up.” Who would have argued once the deed was done?
The way it’s going, maybe the cavemen will save us the trouble. Sure would be a shame if these jihadists blew themselves up in the end.
LLS
By the way, he was *way* ahead of his time in shopping at JC Penney's...
Cheers!
“Iranian nuclear officials are being secretive about the nature of an incident in the Iranian Isfahan nuclear plant that sent many staff members to nearby hospital emergency rooms Wednesday.”
bttt
>I always kinda hoped that GWB would flip a few nuclear cruise missiles at the enrichment sites, just before he left office.<
.
GWB would have done the country an infinitely greater favor had he questioned Bambi’s eligibility before he left office. Even today, he knows where the truth lies.
It’s too late now — the Ship of State struck the iceberg on 11/6/2012.
Historically, once a great city.
D’oh!
I wanted to see the buddhas in Afghanistan. They’re gone.
Sigh. Radioactive blue mosque. http://anthr.religion.nielsonpi.com/media/Isfahan_Madrasa-i_Shah.jpg Sigh.
I also wanted to see Merv. It’s already destroyed, guys. Sigh.
Then there’s Baku.
And the Syrian caves that are part of the iconoclastic controversy.
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