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Aftermath of the Bam Earthquake
Shut nuclear plant on same fault as Bam
Haydar Akbari Tuesday, January 20, 2004
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The 6.6 magnitude earthquake in Bam, Iran, last month has brought two crucial and disturbing visions to the attention of the world: the heartrending poverty in parts of Iran and the potential danger of the nuclear power plant being constructed in the southern city of Bushehr, which is on the same geological fault line that destroyed the city of Bam.
At one time, Iran was one of the most modern countries in the region. Now, the level of social well-being and infrastructure in urban and rural areas is comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. According to Iranian officials and foreign experts, the prime causes of the high death rate in the Bam earthquake were poor building designs, use of primitive materials and widely ignored building codes.
The city of Bam and most of its satellite towns and villages lacked the minimum infrastructure of urban and rural life in the 21st century. Bam had only one hospital with no more than 13 doctors for a population of 150,000. Bahram Akasheh, a geophysics professor at Tehran University, noted that last month's quake near Paso Robles, Calif., had almost the same magnitude (6.3) and depth as the Iranian tremor but caused only two deaths in comparison to more than 40,000 in Bam, according to the Iranian government.
It should be noted that Iran is a country with rich underground resources and some $500 billion from oil exports during the last 25 years. What happened to that $500 billion? Much of it was spent on the export of the late Ayatollah Khomeini's ideology to neighboring Muslim countries, and much went to the eight-year war with Iraq. A considerable amount is also being spent to acquire technology and know-how for weapons of mass destruction, for support of fundamentalist international terrorism, for the personal investments of mullahs and for the establishment of the most atrocious organs of repression, according to the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and numerous international journalists.
Finally, some of it has gone to fund a potential catastrophe: a nuclear power plant in the city of Bushehr, which has been destroyed three times by earthquakes in recent history (1877, 1911 and 1962). It is easy to predict that an earthquake could destroy the plant and do irreparable damage to the area, as well as to other Persian Gulf countries. In a serious earthquake, there will be unimaginable fatalities and environmental disaster. In addition, it would affect the world oil trade, with serious economic costs. (More than half of the world's crude oil travels through the Persian Gulf.)
Iranian officials and the German company that designed the plant maintain that the Bushehr nuclear power plant is built to resist up to a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, but there is no guarantee that a temblor of greater magnitude will not strike. If that happens, the immediate and long-term consequences will be larger and more tragic than the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in 1986. This concern raises questions about the sincerity of the Iranian regime; even if the world community and International Atomic Agency could succeed in inspecting and controlling the development of weapons of mass destruction by the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, what about the potential for mass destruction from a ruined nuclear power plant?
For the good of the people of Iran as well as the world, it is time for the international community to pressure Iran to end the Bushehr nuclear power plant project.
Haydar Akbari is president of the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates (www.ncpda.com), which promotes democracy, human rights and socioeconomic justice in Iran.
article
Makes Yucca Mountain and Three Mile Island sound like a disney attraction doesn't it?
Aftermath of the Bam Earthquake
Shut nuclear plant on same fault as Bam
Haydar Akbari Tuesday, January 20, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 6.6 magnitude earthquake in Bam, Iran, last month has brought two crucial and disturbing visions to the attention of the world: the heartrending poverty in parts of Iran and the potential danger of the nuclear power plant being constructed in the southern city of Bushehr, which is on the same geological fault line that destroyed the city of Bam.
At one time, Iran was one of the most modern countries in the region. Now, the level of social well-being and infrastructure in urban and rural areas is comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. According to Iranian officials and foreign experts, the prime causes of the high death rate in the Bam earthquake were poor building designs, use of primitive materials and widely ignored building codes.
The city of Bam and most of its satellite towns and villages lacked the minimum infrastructure of urban and rural life in the 21st century. Bam had only one hospital with no more than 13 doctors for a population of 150,000. Bahram Akasheh, a geophysics professor at Tehran University, noted that last month's quake near Paso Robles, Calif., had almost the same magnitude (6.3) and depth as the Iranian tremor but caused only two deaths in comparison to more than 40,000 in Bam, according to the Iranian government.
It should be noted that Iran is a country with rich underground resources and some $500 billion from oil exports during the last 25 years. What happened to that $500 billion? Much of it was spent on the export of the late Ayatollah Khomeini's ideology to neighboring Muslim countries, and much went to the eight-year war with Iraq. A considerable amount is also being spent to acquire technology and know-how for weapons of mass destruction, for support of fundamentalist international terrorism, for the personal investments of mullahs and for the establishment of the most atrocious organs of repression, according to the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and numerous international journalists.
Finally, some of it has gone to fund a potential catastrophe: a nuclear power plant in the city of Bushehr, which has been destroyed three times by earthquakes in recent history (1877, 1911 and 1962). It is easy to predict that an earthquake could destroy the plant and do irreparable damage to the area, as well as to other Persian Gulf countries. In a serious earthquake, there will be unimaginable fatalities and environmental disaster. In addition, it would affect the world oil trade, with serious economic costs. (More than half of the world's crude oil travels through the Persian Gulf.)
Iranian officials and the German company that designed the plant maintain that the Bushehr nuclear power plant is built to resist up to a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, but there is no guarantee that a temblor of greater magnitude will not strike. If that happens, the immediate and long-term consequences will be larger and more tragic than the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in 1986. This concern raises questions about the sincerity of the Iranian regime; even if the world community and International Atomic Agency could succeed in inspecting and controlling the development of weapons of mass destruction by the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, what about the potential for mass destruction from a ruined nuclear power plant?
For the good of the people of Iran as well as the world, it is time for the international community to pressure Iran to end the Bushehr nuclear power plant project.
Haydar Akbari is president of the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates (www.ncpda.com), which promotes democracy, human rights and socioeconomic justice in Iran.
article
Makes Yucca Mountain and Three Mile Island sound like a disney attraction doesn't it?
