Majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is believed to be still at its Isfahan nuclear complex, which was bombarded by airstrikes last year by the US and Israel during the 12-day war, and faced less intense attacks this year in the current Iran war, said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Rafael Grossi.
As per Grossi, the UN nuclear watchdog has obtained satellite images showing the effects of the latest combined US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran, saying that the agency continues to obtain constant information.
IAEA inspections ended at Isfahan when Israel last June launched its 12-day war on Tehran, which later saw the US participation and its bombing of three critical Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
As per the watchdog, a large percentage of Iran’s highly enriched uranium was stored there in June 2025 when the 12-day war broke out, and has been buried there since, with the IAEA expressing its inablilty to inspect the sites due to Iran’s refusal to provide access to the agency.
Images from an Airbus satellite show a truck loaded with 18 blue containers going into a tunnel at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center on June 9, 2025, just before the start of the June war. Those containers, believed to contain highly enriched uranium, likely remain there.
The IAEA also wants to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz and Fordo, where there is also some nuclear material, the IAEA director-general added.
Iran is believed to have a massive stockpile of uranium, only slight short of being weapons grade, with last enrichment levels reporting that the Islamic Republic has managed to enrich its uranium up to 60 per cent, slightly short of the 90 pc required for weapons grade purity.
