An Iranian scientist who defected last week over lax safety at his country’s nuclear sites reports that the Bushehr reactor is too faulty to last more than 18 months and mysterious illnesses are spreading through Isfahan from four nuclear facilities. Fearing the reactor might explode, Russian experts summoned from Moscow temporarily removed the fuel rods. According to Russian estimates, an explosion might have caused one million Iranian deaths and injured hundreds of thousands of radiation victims in Persian Gulf countries.