Iran puts its nuclear programme beyond the reach of American bombs
deal with Iran to constrain its nuclear programme in exchange for economic-sanctions relief. Since then, Iran has not stood still. Satellite pictures appear to confirm that Iran is building a nuclear facility in the Zagros mountains, near the existing Natanz enrichment site (shown above).
It seems to be so deep under the ground that it will be invulnerable even to America’s most powerful bunker-busting bomb. If analysis of these pictures by the James Martin Centre for Non-proliferation Studies, an American NGO, is correct, four entrances have been dug into the mountainside, each six metres wide by eight metres high. The facility is 80-100 metres deep down inside.
The Americans had developed a bomb, known as the gbu-57, specifically to be able to destroy an earlier underground facility, at Fordow. Also known as the Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP), the 14,000kg precision-guided bomb can burrow through 60 metres of earth and rock before detonating. But that may no longer be enough to destroy Iran’s hideout.
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