Report: US Bombs Won’t Reach Iran’s Underground Nuclear Site

Workers are constructing a nuclear facility deep in the Zagros Mountains in central Iran, beyond the range of a last-ditch United States weapon designed to destroy such sites, according to experts and satellite imagery analysed by The Associated Press news agency. The installation complicates the West’s efforts to halt Tehran from potentially developing an atomic bomb, which Iran denies seeking. The report comes amid a spike in Iran-US tensions and stalled diplomacy between the two countries. Since the demise of the nuclear accord, Iran has said it is enriching uranium up to 60 percent, and inspectors recently discovered the country had produced uranium particles that were 83.7 percent pure, just a short step from reaching the 90 percent threshold of weapons-grade uranium. The US and Israel have said they won’t allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon. Iran says the new construction will replace an above-ground centrifuge manufacturing centre at Natanz struck by an explosion and fire in July 2020.