01-07-2025
Satellite images capture activity at Iran's Fordow nuclear site after US Strikes
Satellite images show Iran has built a new access road at its Fordow uranium enrichment site and moved in construction equipment that could be used to assess the damage done to the key underground nuclear facility by last month's U.S. airstrike.
The imagery captured over the weekend by Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite company, shows a new road up the mountain where the Fordow nuclear facility is located along with a number of vehicles, including what analysts have identified as an excavator and a mobile crane.
An analysis of the images by the Institute for Science and International Security, a think tank studying the Iranian nuclear program, said the excavator was likely preparing a staging area to send cameras or personnel down the holes made by American bombs to inspect the damage done to the underground facility.
American long-range bombers dropped 12 huge 'bunker buster' bombs on the facility on June 22. The 30,000-pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator weapons were designed to pierce deep into the mountain before exploding underground, leaving behind holes that can be seen in satellite photos.
The Institute for Science in its analysis said it observed no visible activity at Fordow's tunnel entrances, which were filled in. Several of the trucks visible in the satellite images appear to be dump trucks used to haul away debris.
The images have been released during an debate over the extent of the damage from the U.S. airstrikes, which followed days of Israeli strikes on the country.
President Trump and his administration say the strikes by bunker busters and cruise missiles on the key Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan sites 'obliterated' Iran's nuclear capabilities.
An initial assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency that surfaced last week said the strikes likely only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a few months. The White House has pushed back on the report.
Nuclear experts including former U.S. officials say that a seemingly small setback could significantly shift the diplomatic and military calculus around Iran's nuclear program.
One question surrounding the future of Iran's nuclear program is the fate of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and the centrifuges used to enrich the fuel. Some of the equipment and material may have been moved from Iran's nuclear sites before the U.S. attack, nuclear experts say.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors lost the ability to track Iran's manufacturing of centrifuges because of restrictions imposed by Iran. The restrictions were in response to Trump's withdrawal in 2018 from the 2015 international agreement designed to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the IAEA's director general, said on Sunday that Iran could have enough centrifuges spinning in a matter of months, if it decides, to resume enriching uranium.
'It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it's not total damage,' he said.
'The industrial capacity is there. Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious. So you cannot disinvent this,' he said in an interview with CBS's 'Face the Nation.'
Write to Jared Malsin at
