An expert on Iran’s nuclear programme has warned that Iran has hidden sites housing “hundreds if not thousands” of advanced centrifuges capable of producing weapons-grade uranium. The regime has also moved much of the enriched uranium to a secret location before the US was able to bomb its three known nuclear facilities on June 22, they added.
As a result, Tehran could have all the capabilities to build a nuclear bomb, said Sima Shine, an expert on Iran’s nuclear programme who has worked within the Israeli military establishment for more than 30 years. “I’m sure they have a hidden place somewhere with some hundreds, if not thousands of centrifuge[s] and they have material all there in several places all over Iran,” Ms Shine explained. While Iran cannot do anything in the immediate future, she added, they have “all the capabilities” to build a bomb.
Ms Shine told The Telegraph that there was “no doubt” Israeli and US aircraft had inflicted “huge damage” to Iran’s known nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. However, other “secret” facilities almost certainly exist.
“The [known] sites in themselves, for the time being, are not a lot of threat”, she said. “The problem is, as you know, the material and the advanced centrifuges that I’m sure they have somewhere”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that Iran has 40kg of uranium concentrated to 60% purity, which would be enough for nine to 10 nuclear bombs if the material were to be enriched to weapons grade, generally said to be 90%. However, Ms Shine said that the IAEA has not visited the key facilities for four years, “so I’m sure they have a hidden place”.
The current location of the material following the US strikes is not known, but there is widespread speculation that it was moved ahead of time.
Satellite pictures of the Fordow nuclear site taken on Thursday and Friday – ahead of the US strikes – showed unusual vehicle activity close to the entrance of the complex, which lies south of Tehran. A total of 16 cargo trucks were spotted on the access road leading up to the Fordow tunnel entrance on Thursday, but most had moved to a spot under a mile northwest of the access road by the following day, satellite imagery firm Maxar said.
Iranian state media reported key nuclear sites had been evacuated ahead of US attacks, with enriched uranium moved “to a safe location”.
Ms Shine said Iran had signalled they were “spreading the material” in order to keep “an important tool in their hands”.
On June 22, the US Air Force attacked the The Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre were targeted with 14 GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs carried by Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bombers and with Tomahawk missiles fired from a submarine. The attack was given the codename Operation Midnight Hammer and was described as a “very successful attack” by President Donald Trump via his Truth Social account.