<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Five tunnels burrowing into a group of mountains, a large support structure and a wide security perimeter: that's all you can see of Iran's mysterious Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant from recent satellite imagery.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The secretive, heavily guarded complex built close to the holy city of Qom has been fuelling speculation about its true nature and size since it was first made public in 2009.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A chunk of what we do know about it comes from a trove of Iranian documents stolen years ago by Israeli intelligence.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/israel-iran-conflict-donald-trump-says-real-end-better-than-a-ceasefire/a40cdd4e-26ff-461a-87bf-76fb1f69f45b" rel="" target="" title="Trump issues thinly-veiled threat against Iran's Supreme Leader"><strong><span>Trump issues thinly-veiled threat against Iran's Supreme Leader</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Its main halls are an estimated 80 to 90 metres beneath the ground – safe from any aerial bomb known to be possessed by Israel, making destroying the facility from the air a near-impossible task.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As Iran's leadership reels from a series of devastating Israeli strikes, some analysts say that it is at Fordow that Iran may rush to convert enriched uranium stockpiles into a nuclear bomb.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel has targeted the facility in recent days but, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), so far it has either been unwilling – or unable – to damage it.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/what-we-know-about-irans-secretive-fordow-nuclear-site/0e0c77a5-6704-4449-9a2a-c03589b1086d" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tehran has long maintained the objectives of its nuclear program are peaceful, but Fordow has been at the heart of concern over Iran's ambitions.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," then US President Barack Obama said in 2009 as he, along with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed the existence of Fordow to the world.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Just days before the announcement, the Iranians, apparently knowing Western agencies had learned about the facility, told the IAEA of their desire to build a new fuel enrichment facility. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>By that point construction at Fordow had been underway for years.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tehran pushed back against the accusations, but condemnation even from ally Russia and concerns from China left it with little room to manoeuvre.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Construction started in the early 2000s</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US and its allies have not provided much detail on when the construction of Fordow started, but publicly available historical satellite imagery shows work at the site as far back as 2004, with photographs revealing two white square structures where the tunnel entrances are located today. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The IAEA says it has additional imagery showing construction as far back as 2002.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Fordow is actually a project that started during what we call the crash nuclear weapons program of the early 2000s," David Albright, head of the Washington, DC-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a nonpartisan institution dedicated to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The idea was they (the Iranians) would make weapon-grade uranium in that plant, and they would obtain low-enriched uranium from the civil nuclear program in Iran."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 2009, a large outside support structure was already fully built and excavation was ongoing for what experts believe to be a ventilation shaft, crucial to allow air circulation into the facility. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That shaft was later concealed and camouflaged, more recent imagery also shows.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Tehran explained to the IAEA in a letter dated October 2009 that the decision to build the facility underground was a result of "threats of military attacks against Iran," adding that Fordow would serve as a contingency for the nearby Natanz plant, which, it claimed, "was among the targets threatened with military attacks".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran told the IAEA the facility could house up to 3000 centrifuges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Nuclear deal and Israeli accusations</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The dangers posed by Fordow were largely tamed as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) the so-called "Iran nuclear deal," that required Iran to remove two-thirds of the centrifuges inside the facility, along with all nuclear material, after the facility was banned from any such work.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That process was slowly reversed when US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Further details about the facility were made public by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, after his country's intelligence services seized more than 55,000 documents from what Israel said was Iran's "atomic archive."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Among the documents were detailed blueprints of Fordow and information on its objectives: to produce weapons-grade uranium, as part of Iran's nuclear weapons program, for at least one or two nuclear weapons per year.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We never saw any, any inconsistency," Albright, who has combed through the documents, said of Iran's push to develop nuclear weapons. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It's hundreds of thousands of pages. I mean you just can't make that amount of stuff up. I don't think anyone challenges it, and that's probably why there is an (IAEA) Board of Governors resolution against Iran."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At the time, then Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the revelations and Netanyahu's comments "childish" and "laughable". </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US had known about the material "for a while" and believed the documents were authentic.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><strong><span>Protected from even the largest bombs</span></strong></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Recent IAEA reports suggested Iran had ramped up production of enriched uranium to a level of 60 per cent at the Fordow facility, which, according to experts and the IAEA, now contains 2700 centrifuges.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern," the IAEA </span><a href="https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/25/06/gov2025-24.pdf" rel="" target="" title=""><span>said in a report</span></a><span> on May 31.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"One of the things that elevated the tension, was they have no reason to do that, other than to be able to then go the next step and turn it into weapon-grade uranium," Albright said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It was interpreted as they're preparing themselves to be able to do it if they decide to. And if you're 60 per cent, you can turn it into weapon-grade uranium very quickly," he added.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>According to the ISIS think tank, "Iran can convert its current stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium into 233 kg of weapon-grade uranium in three weeks at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant," enough for nine nuclear weapons.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That is why Fordow is a major focus of Israel's attempts to degrade and destroy Iran's nuclear program. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But is it even feasible?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The US is the only country that possesses the kind of bomb required to strike Iran's Fordow nuclear site, Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said in an interview with Merit TV on Monday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"For Fordow to be taken out by a bomb from the sky, the only country in the world that has that bomb is the United States. And that's a decision the United States has to take, whether or not it chooses to actually pursue that course," Leiter said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But, he added, that wasn't the only option: "There are other ways of dealing with Fordow."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Destroying Fordow from the air would be almost impossible for Israel, according to a March report from the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank and would require significant firepower and assistance from the United States.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It would not even be reachable by the US' GBU-57 massive ordnance penetrator bombs, which only reach about 60 meters deep, according to the RUSI report. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And the GBU-57 can only be delivered by US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers, something Israel doesn't have – even if the US would give it the bombs.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Even the GBU-57/B would likely require multiple impacts at the same aiming point to have a good chance of penetrating the facility," said the report.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Other analysts agree, saying, if the US were to try to hit Fordow, it probably couldn't be done with one bomb.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I would bank on repeated strikes against Fordow," CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, a former US Air Force colonel, said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Albright says there could be other ways to disable Fordow.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Israel could probably destroy the tunnel entrances pretty far back, and certainly destroy the ventilation system," he said. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If you destroyed (the tunnels) and the electric electrical supply, it would be months before they could really operate."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Despite its crucial role in Iran's nuclear program, Albright believes Fordow is just another piece of the puzzle.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If you destroy it, it's not the end of the line, because you then go to the next threat, which is, how many centrifuges has Iran made that they didn't deploy at Fordow and Natanz? And where are they?" he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think people over-emphasise the need to destroy it by bringing down its ceilings, which admittedly, probably only the US can do."</span></div></div>