Wienna: President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US military had carried out a “very successful attack” in nuclear locations in Iran, including a facility buried deep in a mountain in Fordow, south of Tehran.
Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear places since it began strikes on Iran on June 13, including the Natanz heart of Iran’s uranium enrichment program and khondab, a partially built heavy water research reactor.
Below is an overview of some of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities.
Where are Iran’s nuclear facilities?
Iran’s nuclear program is scattered in several places. While the threat of Israeli air strikes has been drawing for decades, only some of the places have been built underground.
Does Iran have a nuclear weapons program?
The United States and the UN Nuclear Guard Dog believe Iran was running a coordinated, secret nuclear weapons program, as it stopped in 2003. Iran ever denies having one or intended to develop one.
In 2015, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in return for exemption from international sanctions under an agreement with the world powers. This deal collapsed, after Trump, during his first term as president, withdrew the United States from the 2018 deal. Iran began to scale down its compliance the following year.
Does Iran increase its uranium enrichment?
Yes. Since the collapse of the 2015 agreement, Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment efforts, which drastically reduced the “breakout time” required to produce enough arms class uranium for an atomic bomb-from about a year to just days or just over a week.
However, producing a usable bomb will still take longer and the exact timeline remains uncertain.
Iran is now enriching uranium for up to 60% Fissil purity of the 90% needed for weapon quality-in two places. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran theoretically has enriched to this level, if further refined, for six nuclear bombs.
Natanz
Natanz is central to Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Located on a plain near Shia Holy City of Qom, south of Tehran, includes the two main enrichment plants: the large underground fuel enrichment system (FEP) and the smaller underground pilot fuel enrichment plant (PFEP).
Iran’s secret construction of Natanz was postponed in 2002 by an exiled opposition group that triggered a lasting diplomatic standoff with the West.
FEP is built underground, allegedly about three floors deep and was designed to house up to 50,000 centrifuges. Before the United States and Israeli attacks, approx. 16,000 centrifuges with approx. 13,000 in operation, which caused uranium up to 5%.
PFEP has only hundreds of centrifuges, but is where Iran has enriched uranium up to 60% purity.
Fordow
Fordow, on the opposite side of Qom, is dug deep into a mountain and offers greater protection against air strikes. After the US attacks claimed Trump on social media: “Fordow is gone.”
The Nuclear Agreement in 2015 banned enrichment activities on Fordow. Before the attacks, about 2,000 centrifuges worked there, mostly advanced IR-6 machines, with up to 350 enriching to 60%.
The United States, Britain and France revealed in 2009 that Iran had secretly built the plant without notifying the IAEA. The then President Barack Obama said, “The size and configuration of this facility is incompatible with a peaceful program.”
Isfahan
Isfahan, Iran’s second largest city, hosts a great nuclear complex. It includes an uranium transformation facility that treats uranium for uranium hexafluoride for centrifuge use and a fuel plate manufacturing system.
IAEA says that enriched uranium is stored in Isfahan and that the place houses equipment to produce centrifuge parts and uranium metal – the latter is particularly sensitive as it can form the core of a nuclear bomb.
In 2022, IAEA described a new facility there as a “new location”.
Khondab
Previously called Arak, Khondab is a heavy-water research reactor. Such reactors pose a spread risk because they can produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used for bomb making.
During the 2015 agreement, the construction was stopped, the core was filled with concrete, and the reactor had to be redesigned to prevent the production of weapon class plutonium. Iran has said it is planning to start operating the plant in 2026.
Tehran Research Center
This center includes a research reactor and other nuclear research facilities.
Bushehr
Iran’s only operational nuclear power plant is in Bushehr at Gulf Coast. It uses Russian-delivered fuel returned to Russia after use, which limits spreading risks.
