Wasserman writes: "In the wake of an apparent break in the march to a wider war, the reality of a nuclear dimension in Syria remains largely unspoken."
U.S. involvement in Syria is being discussed by both sides. (photo: Lens Yong Homsi/AP)
13 September 13
n the wake of an apparent break in the march to a wider war, the reality of a nuclear dimension in Syria remains largely unspoken.
There are at least five key reasons why American military intervention in Syria's civil war could go nuclear:
(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."
Continue Reading: Five Ways a Wider Syrian War Could Go Nuclear
