CNN
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Israel’s unprecedented attack on Iran had an elusive, high-risk target at their core. It eradicated the country’s controversial nuclear program.
Israel has targeted Iran’s three key nuclear facilities: Natanz, Isfahan and Fordau – as well as many top scientists involved in nuclear research and development.
The extent of the damage – and whether Iran’s nuclear program will survive is not immediately clear. Israeli military officials said at a briefing on Saturday that they were attacked by Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan. Iran said it has admitted the deaths of nine experts, despite limited damage to the facility.
“If we miss that, there’s no way Iran will prevent the development of nuclear weapons that threaten our existence,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday.
“We’ve been dealing with Iranian proxy for the past year and a half, and now we’re dealing with the heads of the snake itself.”
Iran claims that the programme is peaceful. This is what we know about the damage to three sites.
Initial assessments show that Israel’s strike against the Natanz nuclear facility in Israel was highly effective, far beyond superficial damage to external structures and knocked out electricity at low levels where the centrifuge used to enrich uranium was stored.
“This was a full-spectrum blitz,” said another source who is well-versed in the assessment.
The strike has destroyed the aboveground portion of Natantz’s pilot fuel enrichment plant, a vast site that has been in operation since 2003, and has enriched uranium by up to 60% purity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Weapon grade uranium is concentrated to 90%.
CNN has obtained radar images from the space imaging company Umbra, which has damaged several areas of the Natantz facility. Other satellite images reviewed by CNN showed the same damage more clearly as the smoke plume was visibly rising, visible from multiple locations throughout the site.
Natantz’s electrical infrastructure, including major power buildings and emergency and backup generators, has also been destroyed, according to the IAEA. The assessment was supported by two U.S. officials and told CNN that electricity was knocked out at a low level where the centrifuge used to enrich uranium was stored.
Because many of Natantz facilities are strongly strengthened and are underground, that aspect of operation is extremely important as cleaning up power to those parts of the facility is the most effective way to affect underground equipment and machines.
The IAEA said that while Israel does not appear to have directly damaged the underground parts of the plants, the loss of power over the underground cascade hall “may have hurt the centrifuge there.”
Natantz has six above-ground buildings and three underground buildings, two of which can hold 50,000 centrifuges, according to the non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). Centrifuges are machines that can concentrate uranium by rotating gas at high speeds.
There is no broader radiological effects. “The levels of radioactivity outside the Natanz site remain unchanged and remain normal,” the IAEA said. “However, due to the effects, there is radiological and chemical contamination within Natantz’s facility,” he added, but the levels are manageable.
The extent of damage at the Isfahan nuclear site in central Iran, along with conflicting claims about the effects of attacks emerging in Israel and Iran, has been more difficult to analyze within hours of being hit.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s atomic energy organization, said on Saturday that Iran’s largest nuclear research complex – limited and damages at the site.
Equipment at the two facilities moved in anticipation of a strike, Kamalbandi said. He added that the shed at the facility caused a fire, and there is no risk of contamination.
But Israel was even more bullish. An IDF official said at a briefing on Saturday that the site caused major damage.
The facility was built with support from China and opened in 1984, NTI said. According to the nonprofit, 3,000 scientists are employed in Isfahan, and the site is “suspected to be the heart of Iran’s nuclear program.”
NTI says it “operates conversion facilities and fuel production plants,” as well as “three research reactors supplied by China” and “conversion facilities, fuel production plants, zirconium cladding plants and other facilities and laboratories.”
During a briefing on Saturday, IDF officials said Israel had “specific intelligence” in which Iran “goes to nuclear bombs” at Isfahan’s facility. Despite its significant uranium enrichment, Iran repeatedly stated that the nuclear program was a peaceful purpose and denied the development of the atomic bomb.
Fordow fuel enrichment plants are a much more difficult site to target. The plant is buried deep in the mountains near QOM in northern Iran, and the house is an advanced centrifuge used to enrich uranium of high purity.
Israel targeted the site during the attack on Friday, but the IAEA said it had not been affected and the IDF claimed significant damage there. Iran’s bulletproof shot down an Israeli drone near the plant, Iranian state media outlet reported Friday evening.
The fate of Fordow may be crucial to the overall success of the Israeli attack.
In 2023, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that uranium particles enriched in 83.7% purity were found in Fordow, near the 90% level of enrichment required to make nuclear bombs.
“If Fordow remains operational, Israeli attacks could barely slow Iran’s path to bombs,” wrote James M. Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on Friday.
Acton said Israel might be able to collapse the entrance to the facility, but noted that destroying the Fordau site will be a difficult task for Israel.