Amid Israeli threats to target them...these are the most important Iranian nuclear facilities

After the large-scale Iranian attack on Israeli military and security targets on the first of this month, Israeli and American media outlets have been reporting Israeli threats of the possibility of bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, considering this an opportunity that may not be repeated later, amid Iranian warnings and threats of a crushing response to any attack on Iranian facilities, especially nuclear and economic ones.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Israel had been waiting for 22 years for the moment of the last Iranian missile attacks, in order to implement its plan to launch attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, but it questioned its ability to do so during the current second round of escalation, and the possibility of the attacks failing without American support.

The newspaper pointed out that former and current Israeli officials admitted during interviews that they have doubts about the occupation’s possession of the appropriate weapons to cause significant damage to Iranian nuclear facilities. In the following lines, we present what we know about the most important Iranian nuclear facilities.

Natanz facility

The Natanz facility, or the "Martyr Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan" facility, after the Iranian nuclear scientist who was assassinated by Israel in 2012, is the most important facility in Iran for uranium enrichment, as it contains the largest number of centrifuges used in enrichment, and its capacity is capable of operating 54,000 centrifuges. The facility is located in the Natanz area of Isfahan province, more than 220 kilometers from the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Parts of the uranium enrichment halls in Natanz are located 40 to 50 meters underground, but because they are located in an open desert, this poses a threat to them from air attacks, in light of the continuing Israeli and American threats against the Iranian nuclear program.

However, in 2022, Iran worked to dig a huge network of tunnels south of the Natanz facility, which the New York Times considered at the time to be the largest Iranian effort to date to build new nuclear facilities deep underground capable of withstanding bombs and electronic attacks.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran later confirmed reports of the new fortified structures south of Natanz, saying they were intended to enhance security measures. The Tesa centrifuge manufacturing plant, formerly located in Karaj, west of Tehran, was also moved there after the plant was targeted in 2021.

Former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, parliamentarian Fereydoun Abbasi, revealed in early May 2021 that the Natanz facility had been subjected to “five major sabotage operations over the past 15 years,” with talk of other “minor” operations occurring at this facility.

The "sabotage" attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities began in 2010 with cyber attacks, as the Stuxnet virus, classified as the most dangerous military virus, targeted in 2010 the country's major Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Bushehr nuclear reactor near the Gulf.

UCF website

In addition to the Natanz facility, Isfahan hosts another important nuclear center called the Isfahan Nuclear Site or Uranium Processing Center ( UCF ), which was built on an area of 60 hectares and includes about 60 facilities and production centers operating in the Iranian nuclear industry, including several nuclear reactors. One of the most important nuclear activities in the Uranium Processing Center is the transfer of yellowcake to it for processing and preparing it in the enrichment process to produce nuclear fuel, but the center does not enrich uranium.

Another important work of the center is converting yellowcake into other uranium compounds such as uranium dioxide, uranium hexafluoride, and uranium tetrafluoride. The center also produces fluorine gas, which is a basic compound in the nuclear industry. After producing uranium hexafluoride, it is transferred to the Natanz facility to be used in centrifuges to increase the purity of enriched uranium, which is transferred to the uranium processing center to prepare it for use in nuclear reactor fuel.

On February 5, 2024, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, announced the project to build the fourth reactor, a research reactor at the Isfahan nuclear site, or what is known as the Uranium Processing Center (UCF) .

Fordow facility

The Fordow facility is the most fortified nuclear site among Iran's nuclear facilities. The Iranian nuclear authorities built it 90 meters deep inside the mountains of the area of the same name in Qom province, which lies between Isfahan and Tehran, 160 kilometers from the Iranian capital.

The facility was not known until September 2009, when leaked American and French intelligence information revealed it. The Iranian government then announced that it had built the facility deep in the mountains to enrich uranium to protect citizens and as a precaution against any possible air attack.

On January 9, 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that Iran had enriched uranium to 20% purity for the first time in the Fordow facilities, drawing criticism from the United States, the European Union, and the UN Security Council.

The nuclear agreement prohibited Iran from enriching uranium at the Fordow facility, and allowed it to enrich it to 3.67% at the Natanz facility only. However, as part of implementing the fourth phase of reducing its nuclear commitments, starting on November 6, 2019, in response to the repercussions of the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement in 2018, Tehran activated the sensitive Fordow facility and resumed enriching uranium there at a level of 5%.

On June 28, 2022, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, announced that Tehran had finally started operating new centrifuges at the Fordow facility.

Tehran reactor

The Tehran Research Reactor is located in the center of the capital on Amir Abad Street, North. Its construction dates back to November 1967, when experts from the American company AMF visited Tehran to lay the foundation stone for the Iranian nuclear program, by installing and operating the Tehran Research Reactor, after the United States of America agreed in 1959 to donate it to the Shah’s regime, as part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s plan known as “Atoms for Peace.”

The reactor's central core is located eight meters deep, according to the Iranian TV website. The Tehran Research Reactor has "utmost importance and status" in the Iranian nuclear program, according to the reactor's head, who met with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on April 6, 2021, during the visit, preferring not to disclose his name for security reasons.

The Iranian official added that the reactor “constitutes the basic infrastructure and starting point for training and educating Iranian scientists working in the nuclear program,” saying, “Educating scientists and staff is the most important work of the Tehran Research Reactor.” However, the reactor, which operates at a capacity of 5 megawatts, goes beyond the theoretical aspect to operational activities “such as testing nuclear fuel produced in other facilities.” Here, the reactor’s head explains that “some countries can produce fuel, but they are unable to test its efficiency and quality.”

The reactor produces radionuclides , which are used in medicine, agriculture and industry, according to its president, who also referred to the production of nuclear turbines to combat environmental pollution, nuclear analysis of agricultural materials and detection of traces of crime.

The head of the Tehran reactor explained, in his interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that the most important functions of the reactor on the medical level are represented in the production of five types of radioactive drugs, and one million cancer patients benefit from the reactor’s drugs, according to statements made by the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, to the reformist labor news agency, ILNA.

Bushehr reactor

The Bushehr nuclear power plant project (designed to produce electricity) began before the Iranian revolution in 1979. Iran signed a deal with the German company Siemens to build it, but abandoned the project after the revolution, and the Russian company Atomstroyexport took over its completion. The plant entered service in 2011, producing about 1,000 megawatts of electricity. The Russian company Rosatomstroyexport supplies fuel to this Iranian reactor.

In 2014, Iran planned to build two more reactors at the Bushehr reactor, and then in November 2019, former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi launched the construction of the two reactors by pouring concrete in the presence of Alexander Lukashin, head of Rosatom.

Salehi said at the time that each of the two reactors would produce 1,050 megawatts of electricity (2,114 megawatts for the two plants), considering them the largest projects in Iran, with a cost of $10 billion. The second and third Bushehr reactors are scheduled to be inaugurated in 2025 and 2026, according to Iranian statements.

Khandab (Arak) reactor

This reactor is one of the largest Iranian nuclear facilities. It is located 5 kilometers from the city of Khandab in central Iran. Its construction began in 1998 to produce heavy water used in nuclear industries, and was opened in 2006.

The first information about Iran's Khondab reactor, formerly known as the Arak heavy water reactor, emerged in December 2002, when satellite images were published by the Institute for Science and International Security.

Iran produces 20 tons of heavy water annually, and according to previous statements by the spokesman for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran exports this water to 8 countries. The reactor consists of two large sections, the first is a complex for producing heavy water, and the second is a research reactor.

The spent fuel from the reactor contains plutonium, which can be used to make a nuclear bomb. The Khandan reactor is "more complex than the Tehran Research Reactor," according to statements by the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi.

The P5+1 group (the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany) expressed concern about the construction of the reactor due to its annual production of about 8 kilograms of plutonium, considering that this amount is sufficient to manufacture a bomb if Iran decides to move towards manufacturing nuclear weapons. Therefore, Iran and the group agreed, under Article 3 of Annex 1 of the nuclear agreement, to close the reactor core with cement and rebuild it.

According to the nuclear agreement, a working group was formed to reprogram the Arak heavy water reactor with the membership of Iran, China and the United States of America, but after the latter withdrew from the agreement, it was replaced by Britain. However, the group did not fulfill its obligations regarding this reactor, and Iran itself began to reprogram the site later.

Source: Al-Araby Al-Jadeed