Main content

When Israel destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor

A witness to the Israeli attack on the Osirak reactor in June 1981, testimony from the fall of Madrid in 1939, Hamas' unexpected election win and Tunisia's legal sex workers.

On 7 June 1981 Israeli fighter jets launched a surprise attack on the Osirak nuclear reactor located outside Baghdad, killing 11 people. The French-built reactor was still under construction and there was no leakage of nuclear material, but the bombing was widely condemned internationally. We hear from Dr Fadhil Muslim al Janabi, a former consultant for Iraq's nuclear agency. Also this week, eye-witness testimony to the fall of Madrid in 1939; Hamas' unexpected election victoryin 2006, the plight of legal sex workers in Tunisia and taking part in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at the consecration of Coventry's new cathedral.

Photo: The Tammuz light-water nuclear materials testing reactor under construction in Al-Tuwaitha, just outside of Baghdad, 1979. (Getty Images)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Mon 14 Jun 2021 23:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 12 Jun 2021 13:06GMT
  • Mon 14 Jun 2021 23:06GMT

Podcast