{"id":1142,"date":"2025-06-23T07:10:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T07:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/satellite-images-show-impact-craters-building-damage-at-iranian-nuclear-sites\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T07:10:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T07:10:22","slug":"satellite-images-show-impact-craters-building-damage-at-iranian-nuclear-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/satellite-images-show-impact-craters-building-damage-at-iranian-nuclear-sites\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite images show impact craters, building damage at Iranian nuclear sites"},"content":{"rendered":"
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New satellite imagery shows US stealth bombers appear to have targeted a vulnerable spot in one of Iran’s key nuclear sites, buried deep in a mountain.<\/p>\n

Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, located near the city of Qom, is a once-secret facility that has recently been enriching uranium to levels high above the minimum needed for civilian use.<\/p>\n

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“If your goal is to eliminate [Iran’s] nuclear program, you have to eliminate Fordow,” one expert told ABC NEWS Verify.<\/p>\n

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the bombers had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear ambitions, in a press conference following the mission.<\/p>\n

New imagery from the site shows six visible craters on the mountain that shields Fordow’s underground structure, thought to be about 90 metres below.<\/p>\n

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They were caused by several of the 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs dropped on two Iranian nuclear sites during the attack.<\/p>\n

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The images have been analysed by experts from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) — a think-tank led by David Albright, a leading American physicist and nuclear weapons expert, who is also a former weapons inspector.<\/p>\n

The impacts at the bottom of the image appear to exploit one of the facility’s vulnerabilities — a ventilation shaft, according to the ISIS analysis.<\/p>\n

“This set of holes [is] near the ventilation shaft of the underground complex, enabling an easier pathway for the MOPS to the deeply buried halls,” it reads.<\/p>\n

“It is highly likely that the enrichment halls were severely damaged or even destroyed in the attack. Debris from the explosions can be seen on the side of the mountain,” it concludes.<\/p>\n

The ventilation shaft had been identified as a weak spot in the structure — after Fordow’s early blueprints were stolen in a 2018 raid by Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service.<\/p>\n

“We were surprised by this, there’s only one ventilation shaft for the building,” David Albright said in a 2024 podcast interview.<\/p>\n

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“You see it in the drawings. We went back and looked at historical imagery and we could see it being built, and then [camouflaged].<\/p>\n

“You know exactly where it is … you can destroy that shaft deeply, that could potentially cause damage mostly through temperature effects.<\/p>\n

“You could put the facility out of commission for quite a long time, measured probably in a few years rather than a few months,” he told Arms Control Poseur.<\/p>\n

The ISIS analysis also notes that Fordow’s entrances were backfilled by Iran ahead of the attack.<\/p>\n

Evidence of this can be seen in imagery from June 20, where trucks and what appear to be bulldozers were captured near the facility’s entrances.<\/p>\n

Natanz and Isfahan<\/h2>\n

The new imagery also shows Natanz — Iran’s largest enrichment facility — has been impacted by at least one “bunker-buster”.<\/p>\n

An image from its construction in 2003 shows large structures in the middle of the site, which are not present in more recent imagery and were likely buried.<\/p>\n

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The new imagery shows at least one GBU-57 impact point above what is thought to be a buried enrichment hall, according to ISIS analysis.<\/p>\n

“This explosion likely destroyed the facility,” it concludes.<\/p>\n

The high-resolution imagery shows at least one other likely impact crater.<\/p>\n

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Previous Israeli strikes had hit an electrical substation, gas turbine generators, a power supply support building and a pilot fuel enrichment plant.<\/p>\n

The Isfahan nuclear site had also been hit by Israeli strikes prior to America’s involvement.<\/p>\n

But a US submarine launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at the site as the attack was unfolding.<\/p>\n

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ISIS analysis said the Isfahan complex sustained heavy damage, including to its main uranium conversion facility and nearby tunnel entrances.<\/p>\n

Bombers fly east<\/h2>\n

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bombers were used to drop the GBU-57s — marking the first time the bombs have been used in an operation.<\/p>\n

The bombs reach depths of up to 60 metres before exploding.<\/p>\n

The US’s entire fleet of B-2s operates out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.<\/p>\n

It took 18 hours for the bombers to reach their target, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.<\/p>\n

Including the flight back to the US, it was the longest B-2 mission since 2001.<\/p>\n

The mission included flying a number of bombers west over the Pacific as decoys — which were able to be tracked by some aviation enthusiasts.<\/p>\n

General Caine said more than 125 aircraft were involved in the mission — including fourth- and fifth-generation fighter jets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Satellite images show impact craters, building damage at Iranian nuclear sites<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New satellite imagery shows US stealth bombers appear to have targeted a vulnerable spot in one of Iran’s key nuclear sites, buried deep in a mountain. Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, located near the city of Qom, is a once-secret facility that has recently been enriching uranium to levels high above the minimum needed for civilian…<\/p>\n

Read More “Satellite images show impact craters, building damage at Iranian nuclear sites”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}