Potential Strikes On Iran’s Reactor and Nuclear Complexes

Update: Iran Alleges Strikes on Natanz Enrichment Facility

Amid ongoing military operations that have targeted Iran’s Arak heavy-water reactor site, Tehran claims the United States and Israel also struck its key Natanz uranium enrichment complex on Sunday, March 1.

According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami informed IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi in a letter that “the criminal regimes of the United States and Israel… again targeted the Natanz nuclear site on Sunday afternoon.”

The Institute for Science and International Security claims they have verified the strikes.

Iran’s IAEA ambassador Reza Najafi repeated the accusation to reporters during Monday’s emergency Board of Governors meeting in Vienna, calling the facilities “peaceful” and “safeguarded.”

However, Grossi told the same session that the agency has “no indication that any of the nuclear installations have been damaged or hit.” He added that IAEA monitoring, including satellite imagery, has revealed nothing comparable to the major damage at Natanz during the June 2025 strikes, though contact with Iranian authorities remains limited.

The Iranian claims have not been independently verified. Israel and the United States have not commented on any specific strike at Natanz. The head of Iran’s atomic energy organization reiterated the claim from earlier this morning that the US has bombed the Natanz nuclear facility again.

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Foreign media sources are circulating claims US/Israeli forces struck Iran’s Arak heavy-water reactor complex. If confirmed, this would mark the second major hit on the facility in less than a year, underscoring Jerusalem and Washington’s determination to eliminate every pathway to an Iranian nuclear weapon.

The Arak site, located about 250 km southwest of Tehran in Markazi Province, houses the unfinished IR-40/Khondab 40-megawatt thermal heavy-water research reactor and an adjacent Heavy Water Production Plant (HWPP). Originally designed in the early 2000s to potentially produce weapons-grade plutonium, the reactor was partially redesigned under the 2015 JCPOA to limit plutonium output for civilian isotope production. The reactor core was filled with cement and remained non-operational and defueled.

During last year’s escalation, Israel conducted a precision strike on the site. Satellite imagery showed the reactor’s containment dome breached and the core likely destroyed to prevent any future plutonium pathway. The adjacent HWPP suffered damage to distillation towers, though the full extent of production capability loss remains unclear. The IAEA confirmed no radiological release occurred, as the site contained no nuclear fuel or fissile material.

The IAEA has repeatedly stated that strikes here pose negligible off-site contamination risks, unlike potential meltdowns at operational power reactors (Bushehr) or chemical hazards at enrichment halls. Monitoring stations in neighboring countries have reported no radiation spikes following recent operations.

Strategically, neutralizing Arak closes Tehran’s plutonium option, complementing earlier damage to Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan enrichment facilities. It signals that no element of Iran’s nuclear program is off-limits, potentially setting back breakout timelines by years and weakening the regime’s deterrence posture