Officials admit they do not know where Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Iran may have moved along with equipment from nuclear facilities ahead of a US strike on them, is located. Both Vice President J.D. Vance and the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi confirmed that it is still unclear where Iran’s uranium, which is almost weapon-grade, is being stored.
The New York Times writes about this.
The publication writes that given Donald Trumpʼs repeated threats to resort to military action, the Iranians could have exported 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. To create a nuclear weapon, uranium enriched to 90% is usually required.
This 60% enriched uranium was stored deep inside another nuclear complex near Isfahan. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said that UN inspectors last saw the fuel about a week before Israel launched its attacks on Iran. In an interview with CNN on June 22, after the US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, he added that “Iran is not hiding that they were protecting this material”.
Later that day, he was asked in a report if he meant that the uranium stockpile had been moved. He replied, “Yes”. The NYT notes that the stockpile is stored in special containers that are small enough to fit in the trunks of about ten cars.
If this is true, Isfahan is not the only place where those responsible for Iranʼs nuclear program are trying to hide equipment and materials. They have also fortified the Fordow plant to protect what cannot be moved.
Satellite images of the tunnels near Mount Fordow, released by Maxar Technologies days before the US strike, show 16 trucks at the entrance. According to analysis by the Open Source Center in London, Iran was likely preparing for a possible attack. It is not known what exactly was removed from the facility — or if anything was removed at all.
In fact, the Iranians were only able to evacuate a portion of the materials, the NYT writes. The large centrifuges, which purify uranium by spinning at supersonic speeds, are connected by pipes and bolted to the concrete floor. According to one American official, it would be virtually impossible to completely remove all the equipment from Fordow after the conflict with Israel broke out.
The same official added that the archives with the history of the nuclear program after the strikes were deep inside the facility, so it will be very difficult to restore it. In the coming days, both Iran and intelligence expect to receive more information about another uranium enrichment facility, Natanz. It is older, larger, but less secure than Fordow.
Israel has attacked the facility several times, destroying the ground-based part of the uranium enrichment center and knocking out the power supply. Rafael Grossi suggested that the power outages could have caused the centrifuges to spin out of control, potentially destroying them. Before the Israeli strike this month, Iran had about 19 000 centrifuges operating.
It is not known how long it will take Iran to repair or replace the damaged equipment, but it could take years. At the same time, Iran is building a new underground facility south of Natanz to replace the old one. Iranian authorities have told the IAEA that the plant is not yet operational, so there is nothing to inspect there at the moment.
What preceded
On the night of June 22, the United States attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities in the cities of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. American B-2 stealth bombers dropped six GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on Iranʼs Fordow nuclear facility, two GBU-57 bombs on the Natanz nuclear facility, and a US Navy submarine launched a salvo of 30 Tomahawk missiles, targeting the Natanz facility and a third facility in Isfahan. Details of the operation are available here.
Trump claimed that all three sites had been “totally and irreversibly destroyed”. Iran then attacked Israel, launching at least 27 missiles in two salvos. More than 80 people were injured.
The American channel NBC News wrote that the United States is preparing for a possible retaliatory strike by Iran in the next 48 hours. The media also reports that a few days before Trump made the final decision to strike nuclear facilities, Iran sent him a private warning. It said that in response, Iran would organize terrorist attacks on US territory, which would be carried out by "sleeper" cells inside the country. This was reported by two American officials and another person.
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