Environmental Pollution through the Dispersal of Nuclear Material: the Criminal Strategy of Iran and the United States

The dispersal of radioactive material is one of the environmental crimes that has both terrorist and non-terrorist dimensions. In this regard, the activists of the international law system with the ratification of the conventions on the physical protection of nuclear materials and suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism in 1979 and 2005, respectively, considered non-terrorist and terrorist dimensions of dispersal of radioactive material. In this way, the legislator of Iran in 2013, considered a wide range dispersal of hazardous substances as one of the instances of Efsade-fel-arz. In addition to the use of ambiguous words and phrases, the necessity of result of the criminal offense and special malice has led to incomplete coverage in terms of dispersal of radioactive material. Muharebeh and threats against public health are other crimes that have challenges and deficiencies in response to the dispersal of radioactive substances. On the other hand, US Federal Lawmakers have clearly and completely criminalized dispersal of radioactive material in both terrorist and non-terrorist dimensions. In the meantime, the purpose of this paper is to review the laws of Iran and the United States against dispersal of radioactive material and then introduce a proper criminal reaction about aforementioned act.