The center’s analysis, which it provided exclusively to AP, is the first to estimate the tunnel system’s depth based on satellite imagery. Based on the size of the spoil piles and other satellite data, experts at the center told AP that Iran is likely building a facility at a depth of between 80 meters (260 feet) and 100 meters (328 feet). The scale of the work can be measured in large dirt mounds, two to the west and one to the east.
Each is 6 meters (20 feet) wide and 8 meters (26 feet) tall. That is just a short step from reaching the 90% threshold of weapons-grade uranium.Īs of February, international inspectors estimated Iran’s stockpile was over 10 times what it was under the Obama-era deal, with enough enriched uranium to allow Tehran to make “several” nuclear bombs, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.Ī different set of images analyzed by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies reveals that four entrances have been dug into the mountainside, two to the east and another two to the west. Since the demise of the nuclear accord, Iran has said it is enriching uranium up to 60%, though inspectors recently discovered the country had produced uranium particles that were 83.7% pure. Trump argued the deal did not address Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of militias across the wider Middle East.īut what it did do was strictly limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67% purity, powerful enough only to power civilian power stations, and keep its stockpile to just some 300 kilograms (660 pounds).
The construction at the Natanz site comes five years after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear accord. This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows construction on a new underground facility at Iran's Natanz nuclear site near Natanz, Iran, on April 14, 2023.
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