‘…like Chernobyl’: Why a Bushehr Nuclear leak could bring radioactive tide in Gulf Nations first? Expert explains

As Israel-US bombed Iran's Bushehr nuclear facility on Saturday, experts have warned that more such intense strike could cause catastrophic radioactive fallout across Gulf nations.

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said that an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. The head of Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said 198 workers were being evacuated. It was the fourth time the facility was targeted. Also, US-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a petrochemicals hub, a cement plant and a trade terminal on the Iran-Iraq border, where one person was reported killed.

Respondind to the attack, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister said, Remember the Western outrage about hostilities near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine?

Israel-US have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran. Attacks on our petrochemicals also convey real objectives.

Eyre pointed out that prevailing winds and tidal currents in the Gulf would likely carry any radioactive material westward, away from Iran. “Studies and academics have shown that the concentration of the radioactive material going westward might not be sufficient to imperil life like Chernobyl, but more serious is the threat of radioactive nuclear tide in the water,” he warned.

“Once you get radioactive nuclear activity in the water, that precludes desalination. And as we know, the Gulf countries rely almost exclusively on desalination plants to get their water.”

In a latest threat after the bombing, President Donald Trump said Saturday that Tehran had 48 hours left to cut a deal or face "all Hell", as US and Iranian forces scrambled to find a downed American airman.

"Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to an ultimatum issued on March 26.

"Time is running out -- 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them."

Meanwhile, carrying anti-war banners and chanting slogans against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hundreds of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the war with Iran.

Demonstrators gathered in a central square, holding signs that read: "Don't bomb - talk! End the endless war!" despite restrictions on mass gatherings imposed during the conflict with Iran.