Inside Iran's top secret 'nuclear mountain' that its enemies know almost nothing about
The Natanz nuclear facility in Iran is thought to be so far underground that airstrikes won't reach it.
Iran's top secret Natanz uranium enrichment facility is a major focus of interest for the West amid fears the Islamic republic might one day develop a nuclear weapon.
The underground Natanz site is in Isfahan and it has been repeatedly targeted by suspected Israeli sabotage attacks in the past.
Iran fired air defence batteries early on Friday morning around a major air base and a nuclear site near Isfahan after drones were spotted. The action raised fears of a possible Israeli retaliatory strike after Tehran’s drone-and-missile attack on Israel.
The head of the United Nation's atomic watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi, has said there was no damage at the Isfahan nuclear facility after a drone attack on a major air base near the Iranian city.
That Isfahan facility operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors and handles fuel production as well as other activities for Iran’s civilian nuclear program. It is separate to the underground Natanz site.
Non-profit organisation, Nuclear Threat Initiative, has said the Natanz facility is made up of three underground buildings, two of which are designed to hold 50,000 centrifuges.
The Natanz site has been a cause of concern to the West for years. It experienced a blackout in April 2021 which Iran blamed on sabotage by Israel.
An Institute for Science and International Security report revealed that as of October 2022, Tehran had installed 4,000 advanced centrifuges across its enrichment facilities - an increase of 44 percent from late August.
Centrifuges are cylindrical machines which spin uranium gas at high speeds to produce fuel either for nuclear reactors or weapons in a process called uranium enrichment.
Iran's centrifuges have not so far produced sufficient weapons grade uranium enriched to the level needed to create a nuclear weapon, according to IranWatch.org.
It has said, however, that with further enrichment, Iran has a uranium stockpile big enough to fuel at least five nuclear warheads.
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Satellite imagery last year appeared to show Iran was excavating tunnels in the mountains near the Natanz nuclear site, which experts have suggested would make it harder to destroy in airstrikes.
Images taken by Planet Labs PBC in April last year showed Iran tunnelling into the Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La mountain, near the southern permieter of the original Natanz site.
Another set of images closely examined by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies shared with the Associated Press in 2023 appeared to show four entrances being dug into the mountainside.
Construction at the Natanz site came five years after former US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of a nuclear accord.
That deal had limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67 percent purity. This is powerful enough for civilian power stations only.
Since the nuclear accord folded, Tehran has said it is enriching uranium up to 60 percent. Associated Press reported in May 2023 that inspectors had discovered Iran had produced uranium particles 83.7 percent pure.
This is not far off the 90 percent threshold of weapons-grade uranium.
Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile stood at 5,525.5 kilograms as of February 10. This is an increase of 1,038.7 kilograms on the previous quarter, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency's most recent quarterly report.
The same analysis shows Iran has an estimated 121.5 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity, which could be enriched further to weapons-grade uranium at 90 percent.
