Vienna: President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States army had carried out a “very successful attack” in nuclear sites in Iran, including an installation buried in a mountain in Fordow, south of Tehran.
Israel has been pointing to Iranian nuclear sites since Iran began on June 13, including Natanz, the heart of the Uranium enrichment program of Iran, and Khondab, a partially built heavy water research reactor.
Below is a general description of some of Iran’s main nuclear facilities.
Where are Iran’s nuclear facilities?
Iran’s nuclear program extends in multiple locations. While the threat of Israeli air attacks has fallen for decades, only some of the sites have been built underground.
Do Iran have a nuclear weapons program?
The United States and the UN Nuclear Surveillance Agency believe that Iran directed a secret nuclear weapons program that stopped in 2003. Iran denies having had one or the intention of developing one.
In 2015, I was agreed to limit their nuclear activities in exchange for relief of international sanctions under an agreement with world powers. That agreement collapsed after Trump, during his first mandate as president, withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018. Iran began to reduce compliance the following year.
Is Iran increasing its enrichment of uranium?
Yes. Since the collapse of the 2015 agreement, Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment efforts, drastically reducing the “breakup time” required to produce sufficient uranium of degree of weapons for a nuclear pump, from approximately one year to only days or a little more than a week.
However, producing a usable pump would still take longer, and the exact timeline is still uncertain.
Iran now is enriching uranium up to 60% of Pissionil Purity, about 90% necessary for the degree of weapons, in two places. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (OIEA), they will theoretically have enough enriched material at that level, if it refines even more, for six nuclear bombs.
Natanz
Natanz is essential for Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Located on a plain near the Santa Chiíta de Qom city, south of Tehran, includes two main enrichment plants: the vast underground fuel enrichment plant (FEP) and the smaller pilot fuel enrichment plant (PFEP) on the ground.
Natanz’s secret construction was exhibited in 2002 by an exiled opposition group, which caused a lasting diplomatic confrontation with the West.
The FEP is built underground, it is reported that around three floors deep and was designed to house up to 50,000 centrifugers. Before the US and Israeli attacks, around 16,000 centrifuges were installed, with around 13,000 in operation, enriching uranium up to 5%.
The PFEP only has hundreds of centrifugators, but that is where Iran has enriched Uranium up to 60% purity.
Duff
Fordow, on the opposite side of Qom, deepens a mountain, offering greater protection against air attacks. After the attacks in the United States, Trump said on social networks: “Fordow has gone.”
The 2015 nuclear agreement prohibited enrichment activities in Fordow. Before the attacks, around 2,000 centrifugers operated there, mostly advanced IR-6 machines, with up to 350 enrichments at 60%.
The United States, Great Britain and France revealed in 2009 that Iran had secretly built the installation without notifying the OIEA. The then President Barack Obama said: “The size and configuration of this installation are inconsistent with a peaceful program.”
ISFAHAN
Isfahan, the second largest city in Iran, houses a great nuclear complex. It includes a uranium conversion installation that processes uranium in uranium hexafluoruro for centrifuge use and a fuel plate manufacturing plant.
The OIEA says that enriched uranium is stored in Isfahan and that the site houses equipment to produce centrifuge and uranium metal pieces, the latter is particularly sensitive, since it can form the nucleus of a nuclear pump.
In 2022, the OIEA described a new installation there as a “new location.”
Khondab
Previously called Arak, Khondab is a heavy water research reactor. These reactors represent a risk of proliferation because they can produce plutonium, which, such as enriched uranium, can be used for the manufacture of pumps.
According to the 2015 agreement, the construction was arrested, the nucleus was full of concrete and the reactor had to redesign to avoid the production of gun plutonium. Iran has said that it plans to start operating the facilities in 2026.
Tehran Research Center
This center includes a research reactor and other nuclear research facilities.
BUSHEL
Iran’s only operational energy plant is located in Bushehr, on the Gulf coast. It uses fuel with Russian supply, which is returned to Russia after use, which limits the risks of proliferation.
