In recent weeks, Iran has significantly strengthened measures to protect its uranium stockpile enriched at a level close to the level of nuclear bomb manufacturing. According to 5 US intelligence sources, Tehran has proactively collapsed tunnels and planted explosives at entrances.
Sources say that accessing about half a ton of high-enriched Iranian uranium is now more difficult, dangerous and time-consuming than just a month ago. At that time, US President Donald Trump publicly signaled that he could order the US military to conduct an operation to seize this material.
Iran's new defense works are increasing the complexity of the US proposal to remove this uranium and destroy it. This move also raises the question of which side will take on the dangerous task of digging up and recovering this nuclear material.
Some sources say that even the Iranian side will now face difficulties and dangers if they want to move the enriched uranium. This work requires heavy excavation machinery and bomb disposal.
If this information is accurate, the recall of high-enriched uranium will certainly be more complicated," said Scott Roecker, who previously headed the Nuclear Material Disposal Office of the US National Nuclear Security Administration for the period 2017-2021.
If negotiators ask Iran to concentrate the entire uranium stockpile at one location for verification and then defuse or dilute the enrichment level, Tehran will be responsible for accessing and supplying the full amount of uranium. However, he also warned that in this scenario, Iran may declare that part of the highly enriched uranium cannot be recovered.
The international community believes that most of the uranium stockpile is located in collapsed tunnels at the Isfahan nuclear complex in central Iran. A smaller amount is stored elsewhere.
In mid-May, there was information that the US military had prepared for an operation to seize Iran's nuclear material. However, the final plan was considered too risky.
Since then, Iran has continued to strengthen protection measures at locations believed to be places where high-enriched uranium is buried underground.
Currently, even if the agreement between Tehran and Washington is signed next week, the two sides are still expected to conduct more technical negotiations to agree on details related to Iran's future nuclear program.
Taking this amount of uranium out of Iran will likely require a dedicated mobile uranium treatment facility coordinated by the US National Nuclear Security Administration at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Two top US negotiators, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, visited the laboratory in early June.
However, even the world's leading experts in the treatment and relocation of nuclear materials will need a considerable amount of time to complete the task. Earlier this month, Donald Trump said that the process of recovering and removing the above-mentioned uranium will take at least 2 weeks.
