Kuala Lampur, June 22 -- When President Donald Trump ordered coordinated airstrikes - likely in concert with Israel - on Iran's nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan in mid-June 2025, the reverberations were not just geopolitical.

They were scientific, environmental and humanitarian. The attack on these fortified nuclear sites, some buried 80 metres deep into Iranian mountains, was reportedly executed using GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or so-called "bunker buster bombs".

The consequences of such actions are only just beginning to unfold. While the strategic intent might have been to permanently degrade Iran's capacity to enrich uranium or build nuclear weapons, the cost of these strikes will be paid not just in politi...