Explainer | Iran’s main nuclear facilities, long in Israel’s sights
Locations and capabilities of Iran’s key nuclear sites, including Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan, Khondab and Bushehr
Below are some of Iran’s main nuclear facilities.
Uranium enrichment at its heart
Iran’s nuclear programme is spread over many locations. While the threat of Israeli air strikes has loomed for decades, only some of the sites have been built underground.
The United States and the UN nuclear watchdog believe Iran had a coordinated, secret nuclear weapons programme that it halted in 2003. The Islamic Republic denies ever having had one or planning to have one.
Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions under a 2015 deal with world powers. That pact fell apart after then-President Donald Trump pulled out the United States in 2018 and Iran started abandoning the restrictions the next year.
Iran has been expanding its uranium enrichment programme ever since, reducing the so-called “breakout time” it would need to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb to a matter of weeks from at least a year under the 2015 accord.
