Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility hit by “Israeli” attack, IAEA expects ‘very significant damage’
Iran’s nuclear facility of Fordow was hit again on Monday in an “Israeli” attack, the spokesperson for Qom Province’s Crisis Management Headquarters said according to semi-official news agency Tasnim, a day after the U.S. struck the same target.
The official added that there will be no danger to residents in the area.
The United States dropped the biggest conventional bombs in its arsenal on Iranian nuclear facilities on Sunday, using those bunker-busting munitions in combat for the first time to try and eliminate sites including the Fordow uranium-enrichment plant dug into a mountain.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday that the U.S. bombing probably caused “very significant” damage to the underground areas of Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment plant, though no one can yet tell the extent.
“Given the explosive payload utilised and the extreme(ly) vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred,” Grossi said in a statement to an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors.
Experts surveying commercial satellite imagery said it appeared that the U.S. attack had severely damaged the site of Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant, built inside a mountain, and possibly destroyed it and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, although there was no independent confirmation, according to Reuters.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved to an undisclosed location before the U.S. attack.
Grossi added that Iran did inform the IAEA on June 13 that it would take “special measures” to protect its nuclear materials and equipment that are under so-called IAEA safeguards, the oversight provided for by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
