Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Middle Iran Near a peak in the Zagros Mountains in the U.S., workers are building a nuclear facility so deep into the Earth that it is potentially beyond the range of a last-ditch US weapon designed to destroy such sites. experts and Satellite It has been analyzed according to the imagery.
Photos and video from Planet Labs PBC show Iran digging tunnels into the mountain near the nuclear site, which has been subjected to repeated sabotage attacks amid Tehran’s standoff with the West over its nuclear program. Iran is now producing uranium near weapons-grade levels following the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers.
Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Washington-based Arms Control Association, warned that the completion of such a facility would be a nightmare scenario that would lead to a new strain. Given how close Iran is to a bomb, it has little room to ratchet up its program without crossing US and Israeli red lines.
So at this point, any escalation increases the risk of conflict. Construction on the Natanz site comes five years after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal. Trump argued that the deal does not address Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor support for militias in the wider Middle East.
But what it did do was strictly limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67 percent purity, sufficient only to power civilian power stations, and capped its stockpile at just 300 kilograms (660 lb). Since the end of the nuclear deal, Iran has said it is enriching uranium to 60 percent.
However, inspectors recently found that the country produced uranium particles that were 83.7 percent pure. This is just a short step away from reaching the 90 per cent limit for weapons-grade uranium. The Islamic Republic denies it is seeking nuclear weapons,
Although officials in Tehran now openly discuss their potential to pursue one. Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in response to AP questions regarding the build-up that “Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities are transparent and under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.” However, Iran has been limiting access to international inspectors for years.
Tehran has not admitted to any other plans for the facility, although it would have to declare the site to the IAEA if they plan to introduce uranium into it. The Vienna-based IAEA did not respond to questions about the new underground facility.
The new project will be built approximately 225 kilometers (140 mi) south of Tehran. Natanz being done next to. Natanz has been the subject of international concern ever since its existence became known two decades ago.
Protected by anti-aircraft batteries, fencing, and Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, the facility covers 2.7 square kilometers (1 sq mi) in the country’s arid central plateau. The scale of the work can be gauged from the large earthen mounds, two to the west and one to the east.
Based on the size of the spoil piles and other satellite data, experts at the center told the AP that Iran is building a facility between 80 meters (260 feet) and 100 meters (328 feet) deep. It is the first to estimate the depth of the tunnel system based on satellite imagery. This depth is a matter of concern as it cannot be properly analyzed from above.
tunnel It would be very difficult to destroy with conventional weapons, such as a typical bunker buster bomb, said Steven de la Fuente, a research associate at the center who led the analysis of the work.
