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The atmosphere in Iran and Israel worsens each day, and now the world is looking at one of the most clandestine and highly secure nuclear installations of the Iranian state, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.
Although Israel has struck the facility in recent offensive action against the Iranian nuclear facilities, it is still unclear whether there was any damage to the facility and the extent of danger the facility can still pose.
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Where is Iran’s Fordow facility?
Located deep inside a mountain about 30 kilometres northeast of Qom, Fordow was originally a military base run by Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
But in 2009, Iran announced publicly that it had taken the facility and changed it to a nuclear facility, only after knowing that Western intelligence agencies already knew about its presence.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have found uranium enriched to nearly weapons-grade levels in Fordow. During an unannounced inspection in early 2023, the IAEA detected uranium particles enriched to 83.7 per cent purity, just short of the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear bomb.
“At the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, we found particles of high enriched uranium with enrichment levels well beyond the enrichment level declared by Iran,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in March 2023, per AL Jazeera.
Despite Israel’s airstrikes on Fordow last week, Grossi clarified on Monday that “no damage has been seen at the site of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant or at the Khondab heavy water reactor.”
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Recently, the site (Fordow), intended to become a non-nuclear research centre, has been unofficially bestowed again with the task of uranium enrichment, following the U.S withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA). In 2023, the IAEA stated that Iran had now linked centrifuges in a manner that would permit enriched levels to reach 60 per cent purity.
Iranian commander Mohsen Rezaei reassured citizens that “all nuclear material is in a safe place,” per Daily Mail, brushing off concerns about the potential for conflict or sabotage.
Can Israel or US destroy Fordow?
Many experts believe that even if Israel wanted to fully neutralise Fordow, it likely lacks the firepower to do so from the air. The underground site is designed to withstand heavy bombardment.
Only the US has the kind of weapons, or rather the kind of bomb, namely the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is a 30,000-pound bunker-busting bomb that can possibly bring down the reinforced walls of the place.
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier, “I’m not looking to fight.”
“But if it’s a choice between fighting and having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do. I may do it. I may not do it.”
