nuclear-news

Iran war: Israel hits Iranian heavy water nuclear reactor

Jon Shelton | Dmytro Hubenko | Louis Oelofse with AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters | Darko Janjevic, March 27, 2026

A research reactor in Iran’s Khondab was hit by airstrikes, an Iranian official said, stressing there was no radiation leak. The UN warns of a potential “catastrophe” in Lebanon.

The research reactor was officially intended to produce plutonium for medical research and the site includes a production plant for heavy water.

The Israeli military also confirmed it struck a uranium processing site in Yazd in Central Iran on Friday.

“A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force… struck a uranium extraction plant located in Yazd, central Iran,” the military said in a statement, describing the site as a “unique facility in Iran used for the production of raw materials required for the uranium enrichment process”.

Iran’s atomic energy organisation said the strike on the plant “did not result in the release of any radioactive material.”

Iran “will exact (a) HEAVY price for Israeli crimes,” Tehran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, adding that the attack “contradicts (Donald Trump’s) extended deadline for diplomacy”.

‘Worst case scenario’

Investors have grown increasingly concerned that higher oil prices will lead to faster inflation and cripple the global economy.

Wall Street stocks fell sharply across the board, with the S&P 500 ending the week lower for the fifth straight week, its longest such run in four years.

“I think that the market has begun to price in the worst-case scenario over the past two days,” BCA Research’s Marco Papic said on X. “We are not yet at the point of maximum pain.”

He said the S&P 500 could fall another 5-10 per cent as the war plays out.

European and Asian stock markets also ended the day mostly lower. The market reaction on Friday contrasted sharply with the plunge in oil prices and gains for stocks at the beginning of the week after Mr Trump first delayed his Hormuz deadline.

“Trump appears to be losing his grip on the markets,” said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.

“Investors no longer seem to take his statements at face value — if anything, they’re beginning to trade against them, waiting for tangible proof before reacting,” he said.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said: “Investors are facing the facts: the 

March 28, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized