In a dramatic escalation of geopolitical tensions, Iran has heavily fortified its cache of highly-enriched, near bomb-grade uranium. According to five sources familiar with US intelligence, Iranian forces have deliberately collapsed tunnels and booby-trapped facility entrances with explosive landmines to prevent a potential US military operation to seize the nuclear material.
Accessing the roughly half-a-ton of highly-enriched uranium is now described by experts as far more difficult, dangerous, and time-consuming than it was just a month ago, when President Donald Trump publicly signaled that he might order the US military to confiscate it.
Trump’s Negotiation Stalled by Underground Fortifications
These new underground fortifications add an aggressive layer of complexity to the Trump administration’s proposed deal with Tehran, which aims to remove and destroy Iran’s uranium in exchange for ending the current conflict and re-opening the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
While a senior administration official stated that both sides are “inching closer” to an agreement to turn the uranium over to the US to be destroyed on-site, a draft of the deal was recently leaked to a semi-official Iranian news agency, triggering an angry outburst from President Trump on social media.
Intelligence reports suggest that the vast majority of the uranium stockpile is currently buried under collapsed tunnels at the Isfahan nuclear complex in central Iran.
“If this reporting is true, it would definitely complicate retrieving the material,” said Scott Roecker, former head of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Nuclear Material Removal. “I would worry that Iran would claim that some portion of the uranium was irretrievable, allowing them to secretly retain access to it in the future.”
Did Trump’s Public Threats Backfire?
In mid-May, the US military was reportedly prepared to conduct a high-risk special operation to seize the nuclear material. Trump later appeared on Fox News, expressing skepticism that Iran could ever dig up the material without US intelligence noticing. “We know exactly what’s happening. Nobody’s even gotten close to it,” Trump told host Sean Hannity.
However, intelligence sources note that by publicly discussing the uranium as a military target, the president likely gave Iran the exact warning it needed to mine and destroy its own tunnel systems to protect the asset.
The Nuclear Cleanup Nightmare
Even if a diplomatic agreement between Washington and Tehran is signed in the coming week, the technical execution will be a nightmare. Removing the booby-trapped uranium would require heavy excavation equipment, dangerous de-mining efforts, and the deployment of a specialized mobile facility from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Top US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff recently visited the high-tech Tennessee laboratory to prepare for the logistics. While Trump previously estimated that removing the material would take at least two weeks, nuclear experts now warn that under the current mined conditions, it could take much longer.
Source: CNN Intelligence Reports / EchoPress Newsroom
