The US has struck three key nuclear sites in Iran, President Donald Trump said Saturday evening. The sites are Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz, which lie at the heart of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Here’s what we know about the three facilities:
Natanz: The nuclear complex, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is considered Iran’s largest uranium enrichment facility.
Analysts say it is used to develop and assemble centrifuges for uranium enrichment, a key technology that turns uranium into nuclear fuel.
Natanz has six above-ground buildings and three underground structures, two of which can hold 50,000 centrifuges, according to the non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI).
Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity at its above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to 90%.
Fordow: Much is still unknown about the full size and nature of this facility, located close to the holy city of Qom and buried deep in a group of mountains. A good chunk of what we do know comes from a trove of Iranian documents stolen years ago by Israeli intelligence.
The main halls are an estimated 80 to 90 meters (around 262 to 295 feet) beneath the ground. The US is the only country with the kind of bomb required to strike that deep, Israeli officials and independent reports have previously said.
Recent IAEA reports suggested Iran had ramped up production of enriched uranium to a level of 60% at Fordow. The facility now contains 2,700 centrifuges, according to experts and the IAEA.
Isfahan: Isfahan, in central Iran, is home to the country’s largest nuclear research complex.
The facility was built with support from China and opened in 1984, according to the NTI. According to NTI, 3,000 scientists are employed at Isfahan, and the site is “suspected of being the center” of Iran’s nuclear program.
It “operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors,” as well as a “conversion facility, a fuel production plant, a zirconium cladding plant, and other facilities and laboratories,” the NTI says.
