Lost HEU in Bombed Sites

Bombing enrichment facilities can leave unknown caches of highly enriched uranium (HEU) scattered in damaged buildings or canisters, creating a gray‑area custody problem: should militaries attempt commando seizures, destroy material in place, or accept proliferation and contamination risk? The choice forces tradeoffs among prosecution risk, public‑health exposure, and escalation with the attacked state. — This reframes strikes on nuclear facilities as not only a military and diplomatic issue but a logistic and public‑health problem — the post‑strike chain‑of‑custody for fissile material becomes a central policy question.