Five Ways a Wider Syrian War Could Go Nuclear

[eridani]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/five_ways_a_wider_syrian_war_could_go_nuclear_20130913/

IMO #3 and #4 are long shots, but #1, #2 and #5 are pretty worrisome (though #5 is a worry quite independent of anything that would happen in Syria.

(1) There’s a reactor near Damascus.

It is relatively small, by most accounts containing about a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weapons-grade uranium. That’s not much in the scheme of things when it comes to building an atomic bomb. But as Alexsandr Lukashevich of the Russian Foreign Ministry puts it, “If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MSNR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic.”

Of prime concern would be “contamination by highly enriched uranium” throughout the immediate environs. At the very least, it would be “a serious local radiation hazard,” according to Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speaking on Russia Today.

Lukashevich also predicts that “it would no longer be possible to account for nuclear material, its safety and control.” Such material, he warns darkly, could fall into “the wrong hands.”

[eridani]

2. Looking like this worry can be downgraded given current updates

But please don't forget the issue!