nuclear-news

Kuwait would be first victim of Iranian nuclear disaster

Kuwait, GCC not ready to face nuclear crisis’ – Government playing politics, Kuwait Times, By Ben Garcia, 23 Jan 12 KUWAIT: Neither Kuwait nor the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] countries are prepared for any incident of nuclear disaster in the Middle East, says environment activist Dr Khaled Al-Hajery.  Speaking with the Kuwait Times, Al-Hajery, Greenline chairman, said his group had advised and urged the Kuwaiti authorities and other GCC countries many years ago to act and be ready for any nuclear disaster but still
no one seems to listen. “The nuclear problem has started way back from the beginning of the Bushehr nuclear operation in September 2011.

Since then, there had been nuclear waste coming out from the nuclear facility but do we really care? We are dealing and have been talking about nuclear issue since the operation of the Bushehr Plant, but the government didn’t do anything,” he said.  Yesterday reports from
several Arabic dailies mentioned the GCC’s  ‘rapid deployment team’ to face repercussions of a possible accident at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant which is located just across the Gulf water, or around 236 km from Ras Al Zour in Kuwait.

Aleqtisadia Arabic language daily said, quoting Tariq Al-Obaid, secretary general of the Geneva-based Euro-Arab Environment Organization (EAEO), GCC countries could be the
first victims of any nuclear radiation from the Iranian plant…..
Years have passed, and no action was taken by any of the GCC
governments. We have identified that GCC is a nuclear disaster zone,
but we haven’t done any, we have done nothing to prepare our people or
handle any nuclear disaster,” he reiterated.  “This time, they should
be discussing the solution not imitating or repeating the same call we
have done before. ….
He said he had been calling the GCC to talk or address the nuclear
issue in the Middle East and advised the GCC governments to include
the nuclear facilities of Iran, Iraq and Israel.

“Why to deal only with the nuclear facilities of Iran? Saudi Arabia is
planning to operate more than a dozen nuclear facilities; the UAE have
a plan, Kuwait has a plan but temporarily hold and back to zero, but
again, there had been considerations. We continue to support renewable
source of energy like the wind and solar energy,” he stressed. The
report quoted experts as saying nuclear radiation from Bushehr could
reach Kuwait within 15 hours at a wind speed of five meters per
second….. http://new.kuwaittimes.net/2012/01/22/kuwait-gcc-not-ready-to-face-nuclear-crisis-government-playing-politics/

January 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | MIDDLE EAST, safety