...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...may have narrowly escaped a nuclear disaster following the discovery of nuclear material in storage south of the capital last week
Last year’s Beirut port explosions, caused by wrongly stored ammonium nitrate in a warehouse in the port of the Lebanese capital, were almost unimaginably destructive, leading to the deaths of 200 people, 6,000 others injured and a further 300,000 people made homeless.
The Lebanese authorities have failed to secure the funds needed to repair the damage, estimated at almost $15 billion, and divisions in the country’s political elites have grown to the extent that they cannot agree on a new government.
Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake...
popular protests have become part of the nation’s daily routine.
But news this week has indicated that Lebanon could have experienced an even greater disaster in the shape of a nuclear one. Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, after a meeting of Lebanon’s Higher Defence Council, the highest security and military authority in the country, said on Friday that the German company Combi Lift had discovered "a highly pure nuclear substance" at the Zahrani oil installation 50 km south of Beirut.
Diab, whose cabinet resigned after last August’s port blasts, though it has stayed in office until a new one is formed, vowed to take "quick measures to deal with this matter of great concern".
According to Ziad al-Zein, head of the installation, the chemicals were found in eight small containers that weigh less than two kg each. They contain depleted uranium salts that have been stored there since the 1950s when Medreco, a US company then owned by Mobil and Caltex, was running the facility, he told the local media.
Golly. Sixteen kilos of depleted uranium, whose key characteristic is that it can no longer go kaboom. Of course it’s still radioactive, so no one will be melting it down to make lead soldiers.
The company had administered the site until the late 1980s. The material will now be transferred to the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission, though the latter will need to coordinate with the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on how to dispose of it.Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called the chief of staff and complained that the artillery was keeping him awake...
Combi Lift has been looking for flammable substances in the wreckage of the Beirut Port since last November on the basis of a $3.6-million agreement with the Lebanese government. Lebanon has yet to pay $2 million, while the German government paid the remaining amount.
Before spotting the nuclear material, the company found more than 50 containers that included "hazardous and dangerous chemical material" at the Beirut Port. Some of them have been in place for more than 30 years. Andreas Kindl, Germany’s ambassador to Beirut, said the company was ready to transfer the materials to Germany.
Nice to see they’re finally cleaning the place up.
Last year’s Beirut Port explosions shocked both the Lebanese people and the world, but it seems that people in Lebanon will not be surprised to see similar incidents in future.