Splitsville AN EMERGENCY QUERY FROM THE SPLIT

Our First Emergency Query!

We fully intend to publish today’s SPLITSVILLE newsletter in mere moments, but first we must ask:

DOES ANYBODY HERE KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE U.S. DROPPED A “BUNKER-BUSTER” BOMB ON AN IRANIAN NUCLEAR FACILITY?

We ask, because such a thing strikes us (!) as being not dissimilar to the detonation of a “dirty bomb.”

Wouldn’t the resulting explosion release a lethal cloud of radioactive material?

The BBC’s explainer about all this is silent on the matter of dispersed radioactivity. And while the payload of the bunker-buster is “only” 2,400 kg of explosives, its target would be, by definition, a lot of nuclear material being processed in a lot of centrifuges.

The answer may be, “it’s not a danger.” Apparently the Israelis have already taken out a different, similar facility, and nobody’s yelling about radioactivity:

This is much deeper than Iran’s other underground uranium enrichment site at Natanz, which analysts believe is about 20m (65ft) below the surface. Israel has already targeted the Natanz facility and experts believe it is now "severely damaged if not destroyed altogether".

Still, even if this wouldn’t be a dirty bomb, we’d like to know why. We’re just asking questions.

Thoughts?

[This has been an Emergency Query from THE SPLIT.]