Commercial satellite imagery shows that a US attack on Iran's Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged - and possibly destroyed - the deeply buried facility and the uranium enrichment centrifuges located there, but there is no confirmation of this, experts said on Sunday, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
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"They just blasted their way in with these MOP bombs," said David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, referring to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs the US said were dropped. "I would expect the facility to be probably fried."
But confirmation of the underground destruction could not be obtained, noted Decker Eveleth, a research fellow at CNA Corporation who specializes in satellite imagery. The hall with hundreds of centrifuges is "too deeply buried for us to be able to assess the level of damage based on satellite imagery," he said.
To protect against attacks like the one carried out by US forces early Sunday, Iran has hidden much of its nuclear program in fortified sites deep underground, including in the side of a mountain at Fordow.
Satellite images show six holes where bunker-buster bombs appear to have penetrated the mountain and then the ground, which looks as if it has been impacted and covered in dust.
Several experts also warned that Iran likely moved its stockpile of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium from Fordow before the early Sunday strike and may be hiding it and other nuclear components in locations unknown to Israel, US, and UN nuclear inspectors.
They noted satellite images from Maxar Technologies showing "unusual activity" at Fordow on Thursday and Friday, with a long line of vehicles waiting near the facility's entrance. A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday that much of the 60% highly enriched, near-weapons-grade uranium had been moved to an unknown location before the US attack.
"I don't think you can say with great confidence anything but that their nuclear program has been thrown back, perhaps by several years," said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. "There are almost certainly facilities we don't know about."
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who said he reviews classified intelligence daily, expressed the same concern. "My greatest fear right now is that they will take this entire program underground, not physically underground, but under the radar," he told NBC News. "Where we were trying to stop this, there's a possibility that this could accelerate it."
In response to Israeli attacks, the Iranian parliament threatens to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a cornerstone of the international system established in 1970 to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, by ceasing cooperation with the IAEA.
"The world will be in the dark about what Iran may be doing," said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association.
Reuters spoke with four experts who reviewed Maxar Technologies satellite imagery of Fordow, which shows six neatly arranged holes in two clusters on the mountain ridge, beneath which the centrifuge hall is believed to be located.
General Dan Kane, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said seven B-2 bombers dropped 14 GBU-57/B MOP bombs, designed to hit fortified underground facilities such as Fordow.
Kane said initial assessments showed the facilities suffered extremely severe damage but declined to say whether any nuclear facilities remained untouched, the publication writes.
Eveleth said Maxar's images of Fordow and Kane's comments indicate that B-2s dropped an initial batch of six MOPs on Fordow, and then "double tapped" with six more in the same locations.
He said this "Midnight Hammer" operation also targeted Tehran's main uranium enrichment plant in Natanz and hit Isfahan, home to the country's largest nuclear research center. There are other nuclear facilities near the city.
Albright noted in a post on X that Airbus Defence and Space satellite images showed that US Tomahawk cruise missiles severely damaged the uranium plant in Isfahan and created a crater over the underground enrichment halls in Natanz, reportedly caused by a Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb, which "likely destroyed the hall."
Albright questioned the US use of cruise missiles in Isfahan, stating that these weapons cannot penetrate the tunnel complex near the main nuclear research center, which is believed to be even deeper than Fordow. The IAEA said the tunnel entrances "were impacted."
He noted that Iran recently informed the IAEA of plans to install a new uranium enrichment plant in Isfahan.
"There might be another 2,000 to 3,000 centrifuges planned for this new enrichment plant," he said. "Where are they?"