Centrifuges at Iran's Natanz site likely destroyed, nuclear watchdog says

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - VIENNA — Centrifuges at Iran's underground uranium enrichment plant at Natanz were likely to have been "severely damaged if not destroyed altogether" following Israeli strikes on Friday, the head of the global nuclear watchdog has told the BBC.

Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency said this was a result of power cuts caused by the attack, in which an above-ground plant was "completely destroyed".

The damage was likely caused despite the underground hall housing the centrifuges — machines that enrich uranium — not being directly hit, he added.

He said four buildings were also damaged at the Isfahan nuclear site but no damage was visible at the underground Fordo enrichment plant.

Israel said it attacked the sites and killed nine Iranian nuclear scientists to stop Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.

It alleged that Iran had in recent months "taken steps to weaponize" its stockpile of enriched uranium, which can be used to make fuel for power plants but also nuclear bombs.

On Sunday, Iran reiterated that its nuclear program was peaceful and urged IAEA's 35-nation board to strongly condemn the Israeli strikes.

On Monday morning, Grossi told the IAEA's board of governors that his agency had been monitoring the situation in Iran very carefully, ascertaining the status of the country's nuclear facilities and assessing radiation levels through communication with local authorities.

He said Friday's attack on Natanz destroyed the above-ground part of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), where cascades of centrifuges were producing uranium enriched up to 60% purity — close to the 90% required for weapons-grade uranium.

"There has been no indication of a physical attack on the underground cascade hall containing part of the PFEP and the main Fuel Enrichment Plant. However, the loss of power to the cascade hall may have damaged the centrifuges there," Grossi told the board.

Later, Grossi told the BBC: "Our assessment is that with this sudden loss of external power, in great probability the centrifuges have been severely damaged if not destroyed altogether."

"There was almost total damage to electrical installations."

Centrifuges are fragile, finely balanced machines which spin uranium hexafluoride gas at extremely high speeds using rotors.

A small problem — such as a power cut — can send a centrifuge spinning out of control, with parts smashing into each other and damaging a whole cascade.

Grossi also said there was radiological and chemical contamination at the site, but that the level of radioactivity outside had remained unchanged and at normal levels.

The Israeli military has said that the underground centrifuge hall was also damaged as part of the attack on Natanz, but it provided no evidence.

Grossi said four buildings were destroyed in a separate attack on Friday on the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre — the central chemical laboratory, a uranium conversion plant, the Tehran reactor fuel manufacturing plant, and a facility to convert uranium hexafluoride to uranium metal, which was under construction.

As at Natanz, off-site radiation levels remain unchanged, he added.

The Israeli military said that the Isfahan strike "dismantled a facility for producing metallic uranium, infrastructure for reconverting enriched uranium, laboratories, and additional infrastructure".

Grossi told the BBC there was In Isfahan you have underground spaces as well, which do not seem to have been affected."

At the Fordo plant, Grossi said there was "very limited if any damage registered [there]".

On Saturday, Iran's semi-official Isna news agency quoted a spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) as saying there was "limited damage to some areas at the Fordo enrichment site" following an Israeli attack.

However, the Israeli military has not confirmed carrying out any strikes there.

Grossi said no damage had been seen at Fordo, or at the Khondab heavy water reactor, which is under construction.

He urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint, warning that military escalation threatened lives and increased the chance of a radiological release with serious consequences for people and the environment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told foreign diplomats in Tehran on Saturday that Israel's attacks on his country's nuclear facilities were a "blatant violation of international law", and that he hoped the IAEA's board would issue a strong condemnation.

He also said that Iran's missile strikes on Israel since Friday were a "response to aggression".

The Israeli military's spokesperson, Brig Gen Effie Defrin said on Monday that its large-scale air campaign would "continue to act in pursuit of the operation's objective, to neutralize the existential threat from Iran, from its nuclear project to the regime's missile array".

Iran's health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 220 people since Friday. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed by Iranian missiles, according to Israeli authorities.

Last Thursday, the IAEA's board formally declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years. A resolution said Iran's "many failures" to provide the agency with full answers about its undeclared nuclear material and nuclear activities constituted non-compliance.

Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran was not permitted to enrich uranium above 3.67% purity — the level required for fuel for commercial nuclear power plants — and was not allowed to carry out any enrichment at Fordo for 15 years.

However, US President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement during his first term in 2018, saying it did too little to stop a pathway to a bomb, and reinstated US sanctions.

Iran retaliated by increasingly breaching the restrictions — particularly those relating to enrichment. It resumed enrichment at Fordo in 2021 and has amassed enough 60%-enriched uranium to potentially make nine nuclear bombs, according to the IAEA. — BBC