The three Iranian nuclear sites targeted by US bombers

The United States struck three nuclear sites in Iran in an attempt to ensure that the Islamic Republic is no longer able to enrich nuclear materials.

The air attacks targeted the sprawling and sophisticated matrices and the central expulsion that accumulated Iran, sometimes secret and sometimes documented by international inspectors.

The extent of damage is still unclear, but undoubtedly re -invest in nuclear enrichment technology. Meanwhile, Israel has already killed many major nuclear scientists in Iran, and in an effort to erase the knowledge and experience they gained in building these plants.

It is fully known whether Iran has moved or hidden thousands of kilograms of nuclear fuel that has affected it in recent years, including about 400 kilograms that international inspectors from the United Nations said on May 31, that the degree of weapons-about 60 percent of purity-can be customized quickly to 90 percent, is the threshold required to manufacture in a bomb available.

Fordow Fuel Factory

The most fortified Fordow was buried for Iranian nuclear sites, buried under the rocks and covered with reinforced concrete, designed to be safe from any of the traditional weapons of Israel.

That is why the United States had to use many of the largest weapons in its arsenal, or GBU-57 E/B Hands of Huge Ammunition, or MP- The most powerful nuclear bomb in the world.

It is also the most secret – his presence was unknown to Western intelligence agencies until 2008, and US President Barack Obama announced it in 2009.

The evaluation of Western intelligence was that the ranks of the Fordow of the centrifugal devices could be used to enrich the nuclear fuel spent from the Iranian peaceful nuclear power program to increasingly higher concentrations.

During the JCPOA deal with the world powers that start in 2015, the Fordow was reclassified as a research facility, with sudden visits by United Nations inspectors. These visits lasted until recently, and the International Atomic Energy Agency assessed that Ford was not used for the weapons program.

JCPOA was an agreement with the five members of the United Nations Security Council as well as Germany, which forced Iran to maintain an enrichment at less than four percent, in exchange for reducing sanctions.

After US President Donald Trump abandoned JCPOA in 2018, the inspectors were still allowed, and changes were recently documented on the factory designs that allow a much higher enrichment.

Natanz enrichment complex

The Natanz Army Complex is the largest Iranian nuclear enrichment facility. Israel attacked the site twice in recent weeks before the American attack on Saturday.

The United States, along with Israel, has spent years in an attempt to slow Iran’s progress in enrichment technology, including the cybersecurity, nicknamed the “Olympic Games”, causing the centrifuge in Natanz slowly out of control. These operations fell progress for several years.

The site is characterized by thousands of underground veil devices designed to produce different degrees of enriched uranium as well as a research attachment above the ground that Iran uses to test the new centrifuge designs. All of them were under the full inspection of the United Nations.

Israel’s attacks may have caused serious damage to the central expulsion, if they were operating at a time when Israeli warplanes took electricity to the factory.

The remainder was considered a tremendous challenge to destroy it like the Fordow – larger and more widespread, with higher and lower facilities. The Israeli attacks have so far hit a few installations above the ground, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

ISFAHAN Nuclear Technology Center

The oldest Iranian nuclear research centers has been a conversion site since the early eighties. It was built in cooperation with China after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

At least 3000 scientists and engineers on the site, but there was no widespread enrichment in the elbow, according to UN inspectors.

But a segment of the documents stolen by Moussad and showed in 2018 that until 2003, when Iran filmed the official nuclear weapons program, scientists participated in Isfahan in the most complex tasks to create a distinctive bomb.

There is no evidence available to the public that this research continued after 2003.

Where are the other nuclear facilities in Iran?

Iran has many other nuclear installations that spread throughout the country, but the largest and most important is the Bushehr Nuclear Power Production Station and the uranium production station Bandar Abbas.

The explosions have been reported near Bushehr in recent weeks, but it is not clear whether Israeli warplanes have been hit by the attachment. Radiation levels did not jump, indicating that Israel may have been seeking to destroy the infrastructure around the factory instead of the nuclear reactor itself.

On June 12, Muhammad Islami, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, said that Iran has completed the construction of a third enrichment facility in a secret site.

He said, “The new site is built entirely and is located on an unreasonable safe site.” According to the semi -official news agency. “Once the centrifugal installation is completed and prepared, the enrichment will begin.”

Satellite map by Iditi Bahandari