For days now, the Israeli air force has been carrying out attacks on Iran, particularly on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israel suspects that the regime in Tehran is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Iranian authorities deny this. However, over the past years and decades, Iranian nuclear facilities have been built across the country. Several nuclear research complexes are believed to contain large underground facilities where research is allegedly conducted far beyond the level of civilian nuclear energy use.
Severe damage in Natanz and Isfahan
In Natanz, in central Iran, uranium has been enriched on a massive scale – up to 60 percent, according to estimates by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). For a nuclear power plant, uranium needs to be enriched to three to five percent, while for a bomb, around 90 percent is needed.
Now, according to the statement of the head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, to the BBC, the above-ground centrifuges needed for such a process have been almost completely destroyed. It is not clear whether the underground part of the plant was also affected, but the power outage caused by the Israeli attacks could have caused additional damage. Inside the plant, Grossi said, there may be "dangerous radiation contamination", but so far this has not been observed from the outside.
At least four buildings were also damaged at the nuclear technology center near Isfahan, where uranium oxide, known as "yellow cake," is processed into uranium tetrafluoride and uranium hexafluoride - necessary stages for later uranium enrichment.
Important secret complex: Ford nuclear power plant
In addition to Natanz, Iran has another important nuclear enrichment complex – Fordow. It is located south of Tehran. On a former military site near the city of Qom, the Iranian regime secretly built a nuclear facility at the beginning of the millennium. There have also been Israeli attacks there in recent days, but so far there has been no significant damage, because the Fordow complex is mostly located deep underground. To protect it from IAEA inspections and possible attacks or sabotage, a system of tunnels 60 to 90 meters deep was built in a mountain range.
In 2009, Western intelligence agencies first publicly disclosed their knowledge of the nuclear facility. In 2012, the IAEA reported that Iranian scientists at Ford had begun enriching uranium "for medical purposes" to 20 percent. Since then, a total of about 3.000 centrifuges have been installed at the underground facility to enrich uranium. Although this is smaller than the Natanz complex, it is capable of enriching uranium to higher purity levels, making the facility more significant for military purposes.
Was Iran on the verge of creating a nuclear bomb?
It is not known exactly what is happening at the Fordow nuclear facility. Although the complex is formally under IAEA control, Iran has recently, especially since it suspended the international nuclear deal, restricted access to international inspectors and dismantled several monitoring devices.
In late May, the IAEA accused Tehran of increasing its uranium enrichment to 60 percent. Iran has reportedly possessed more than 400 kilograms of the material in recent years. Further enrichment to military-grade levels appears to be possible relatively quickly. The Institute for Science and International Security warned in a report published shortly before the Israeli attacks that Iran, using known capacities at Ford, could produce 233 kilograms of military-grade uranium in three weeks, enough to make several nuclear warheads.
A difficult goal
In light of this, the Ford facility could also be a target of future Israeli attacks.
"At the end of this whole operation, Fordow must be disabled," Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to Washington, told Fox News.
Destroying a facility deep beneath the bedrock would be particularly difficult. Military analyst Cedric Layton explained on CNN that Iran has installed specially reinforced concrete in the Ford to protect it from airstrikes. Although the Israeli Air Force also has bunker-busting weapons, it would likely take multiple waves of attacks to penetrate the facility's protective shell.
The only Western bunker-busting bomb heavy enough to reach its target more quickly is in the possession of the United States. The precision-guided GBU-57 weighs almost 14 tons and was specifically developed for targets deep underground. However, it is too large and heavy for the Israeli Air Force to carry it to its target. This would require American B-2 or B-52 bombers. However, whether the United States will directly enter the conflict between Israel and Iran is still uncertain at this time.
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