June 13, 2025

expert reaction to Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear site

Scientists comment on the Israeli air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. 

Dr Simon Bennett, Director of the Civil Safety and Security Unit, University of Leicester, said:

“It is clear that Israel has mounted a large aerial assault against Iran’s military infrastructure, although there is little detailed information on which sites have been targeted. For example, whether any of Iran’s research reactors have been targeted.

“Iran has devoted significant resources to hardening its military infrastructure – especially its nuclear weapons infrastructure – by burying it deep underground.

“While Israel is equipped with powerful bunker-busting munitions, such as the 5,000lb GBU-28, even these bombs would struggle to penetrate a hardened subterranean bunker. To have any effect, the facility would have to be hit multiple times at the same aiming point – a big ask for any attacking force.

“Should a subterranean enrichment facility or reactor be hit by one or more bunker-busters, it is unlikely that there would be significant contamination beyond the confines of the site, for the simple reason that the enrichment facility or reactor would be buried in tons of earth and concrete.

“Further, those who run the site would have been trained in radiation monitoring and mitigation techniques.”

Prof Richard Wakeford, Professor in Epidemiology, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH), University of Manchester, said:

“Current information appears to suggest that the strikes have only hit uranium enrichment plants, which use highly pure uranium and don’t pose much of a radiological hazard. Such plants will use uranium hexafluoride and this could pose a chemical hazard if damage causes release because hydrogen fluoride is formed on contact with moisture.

If reactors (or reprocessing plants) are hit, that could be more of a radiological problem if it causes significant damage, because then we could see releases of a range of radionuclides, although presumably on a much smaller scale than from previous reactor accidents.”

Declared interests

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