Satellite Imagery Shows Damage to Three Iranian Nuclear Facilities From US Strikes

After a week of global speculation and anticipation, US President Donald Trump ordered airstrikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites on June 22, utilizing bunker-busting bombs to reach facilities hidden deep underground.

American B-2 stealth bombers dropped 14 of the 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) Massive Ordnance Penetrator explosives — known as GBU-57 bombs — on two key uranium enrichment facilities, Fordow and Natanz. It also carried out missile strikes on Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, narrowly avoiding three research reactors on site. Iran’s telegraphed retaliatory attack on a US military base in Qatar a day later was widely seen as a de-escalation, with the missiles intercepted. Iran and Israel then agreed to a ceasefire.

While Trump has described Iran’s three hit facilities as being “totally obliterated,” it will take time to fully assess the extent of the damage. Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies and Planet Labs PBC taken on June 22 offer some early clues: new craters, possible collapsed tunnel entrances and holes on top of a mountain ridge are all visible. But they don’t provide conclusive evidence that the attack breached the most heavily protected underground facilities.

Natanz, one of two known advanced uranium enrichment facilities in Iran, has halls buried 40 meters (131 feet) underground and reinforced with an 8-meter thick concrete and steel shell. Images show a new crater about 5.5 meters in diameter directly over part of the underground facility, according to Maxar.

Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear site is Fordow, another advanced enrichment facility. It is built at least 100 meters beneath the mountainside. Six large craters pock the area, and tunnel entrances appear to be blocked with debris — a sign they may have collapsed.

The satellite images show a large support building, which may be used to control ventilation for the underground hall, was not hit. The International Atomic Energy Agency said no radiation had been released from the site.

The third site to be hit by the US was Isfahan Nuclear Technology and Research Center, a key hub for critical chemical processes that turn uranium ore into feedstock that can be enriched. This was the last known location of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium before Israel’s bombing campaign forced IAEA inspectors to halt inspections on June 13.

While many large industrial buildings and a landscaped courtyard were hit, the miniature neutron source reactors at the site do not show signs of damage in satellite imagery. Senior officials in Vienna, who asked not to be identified, speculated that they were intentionally left untouched to avoid a nuclear fallout.

The presence of dark craters at each enrichment site suggests bunker-busting bombs could have penetrated as deep as 60 meters before exploding, according to the US Air Force.

These weapons can be delivered one on top of another, meaning they can drill down even more with each successive blast. It may still be weeks before the impact of the US bombs are known.

That said, four of Iran’s nine known nuclear facilities have been struck by Israel and the US. Those facilities, spread across the country, are responsible for various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle.

As the process of assessing damage gets underway, the other outstanding question is the location of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.

That uranium inventory could fit in as few as 16 containers small enough to be carried on a person’s back, and is enough to potentially make 10 nuclear warheads at a clandestine location. It was last seen by IAEA inspectors at Isfahan more than a week ago but may have been spirited off site.