Iranian nuclear facility To enrich uraniumIt is the second most prominent nuclear site in the country, and produces highly enriched uranium, with a fissile purity with the levels necessary for military industrialization.
The facility is a challenge to the military efforts that seek to end Iranian nuclear programDue to its hidden location in the depths of the mountains of the Fordo region, which makes it difficult to destroy through traditional air attacks.
In June 2025, an air attack was targeted as part of widespread military operations Israel On a number of Nuclear and military sites Iran, the strike came in the context of military efforts aimed at undermining Iran’s nuclear capabilities and preventing them from developing nuclear weapons.
The site and the structural and technology structure
The Uranium Future Fertility Establishment is about 95 km southwest of the capital, Tehran. For the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Fordo is deeper Iranian nuclear facilities Most of them are counted, as it was designed to resist traditional air attacks, and is also protected by advanced air defense systems, and it is believed that the facility was part of the “Amad Plan” plan, a secret Iranian program suspected of developing nuclear weapons.
The facility consists, according to the data of the International Atomic Energy Agency, from two halls dedicated to uranium enrichment, which was designed to accommodate 16 series of devices Central expulsion The IR-1, the IR-1, is equally distributed between two units, with a total of about 3 thousand central expelling devices.
Historical background
The Fordo facility was established on a site that was originally a tunnel of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards, before it was transferred to a station specialized in installing and operating the gas centrifugal devices to enrich the sixth uranium fluoride, and it was established under the supervision of Iranian Atomic Energy OrganizationAnd that I worked to develop and manage it.
According to Iranian sources, work began to construct the facility in the second half of 2007, but the International Atomic Energy Agency reported, based on artificial satellite images obtained, that construction activities on the site date back to 2002 and 2004, and that the development work continued continuously since 2006.
Iran kept the presence of the facility secretly until September 2009, when it was forced to acknowledge it after the issuance of a joint statement by both the American President at the time. Barack Obama And the French president at the time Nicola SarkozyAnd the former British Prime Minister Gordon BrownAnd the three leaders revealed the existence of the secret facility, and they considered that it represents a violation of the Convention on the Surfaces concluded between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency at that time.
The statement pointed out that the “size and formation” of the Fordo facility does not correspond to a peaceful nuclear program, as the facility is small compared to the stations designated for fuel production. For nuclear reactors Civil, as well as its hidden underground location near a military base, enhances doubts about its nature and goals.
Tehran categorically denied its endeavor to possess nuclear weapons, justifying the fortification of the Fordo nuclear facility with the military threats it faces before The United States of America And Israel, and described the facility as an alternative site, is designed to ensure the continuity of fertilization activities if the declared nuclear facilities are exposed to military attacks that may destroy them.
In October 2009, allowed Iran The International Atomic Energy Agency is to enter and inspect the facility for the first time.
Employment and enrichment capabilities
Iran modified the design information it provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Fordo facility several times. In October 2009, Iran informed the agency that the purpose of the facility is to produce the sixth Fluoride uranium enriched by up to 5% of uranium-235, and that the facility is designed to contain 16 central expulsions, divided equally between the two units 1 and 2, with a total of about 3 thousand devices Central expulsion.
In September 2010, Iran spoke its previous data, adding that the Fordo facility will also be used in research and development activities, as well as enrichment.
In June 2011, it raised the level of enrichment in the facility, as the agency informed that it would produce the six of enriched uranium fluoride by up to 20% of uranium-235, in addition to conducting research and development.
In the updated design information questionnaire in January 2012, Iran reported that the facility is designed to produce six-year-old uranium Floride at 5% and 20% of uranium-235, and informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of canceling the research and development unit at the facility.
In December 2011, Iran officially started operating the facility, began to enrich uranium, and the International Atomic Energy Agency also granted full access to the site.
The agency’s reports for 2011 and 2012 confirmed that the results of the inspections were positive, and it was found that the facility is compatible with the design presented by Iran, and no evidence was found indicating the transformation of nuclear materials produced for military purposes.
Nuclear agreements
He remained Iranian nuclear program A continuous source of anxiety for international forces, and in an effort to reduce concerns related to the possibility of using the Fordo facility to enrich uranium in degrees that can be used in military use, Iran and the group of the six countries concerned with the Iranian nuclear file (Iranian nuclear file (China France وروس جسل And Russia And the United Kingdom And the United States) in November 2013 to a nuclear agreement known as the “joint action plan”.
The agreement included Iran’s commitment to the non -fertilization of uranium at the Fordo facility, with a purity of more than 5% for a period of 6 months, and in 2014, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran’s compliance with the measures stipulated in the agreement.
In the summer of 2015, a new nuclear agreement known as the “Joint Comprehensive Action Plan” was signed, according to which Iran agreed to stop fuel enrichment activities at the Fordo facility for 15 years, with the exception of the production of limited quantities of stable isotopes, and the facility was restructured, to transfer it to a research center subject to the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
According to the agreement, 1044 IR-1 centrifugations were kept in one section of the facility (no more than 348 devices of which are allocated to work to produce stable isotopes and keep what remains in the facility in an inevitable manner), while excess devices and associated equipment were transferred to Natanz facility And store it under the agency’s oversight.
The agreement entered into implementation in October 2015, and in 2017, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran’s full commitment to the terms of the agreement.
The resumption of fertilization activities
The US President announced Donald Trump On May 8, 2018, his country withdrew from the “Joint Comprehensive Action Plan” agreement, following the withdrawal of the United States and the re -imposition of US sanctions on Tehran, Iran has gradually resuming its nuclear activities.
As of May 8, 2019, it began to back down from its nuclear obligations in the agreement, through gradual escalating steps. In November 2019, she resumed uranium enrichment in the second section of the Fordo facility, and with the beginning of the next year, all the centrifugal devices available in the facility were used.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency report issued in November 2020, Iran has been used since January of the same year 6 central expelling chains of a total of 1044 IR-1 devices, to enrich the sixth uranium Floride.
In November 2020, Iran installed more expulsion devices, and the number reached 1057 devices itself, and in December of that year, the Iranian authorities issued orders with annual production of 120 kilograms of enriched uranium by 20%, and some centrifuges that had been previously transferred to the Natanz facility under the agreement.
Iran has stopped implementing the joint “joint comprehensive work plan” agreement on February 23, 2021, and no longer allows the agency to access data or conduct verification and monitoring activities related to the agreement in the facility.
The pace of uranium enrichment speeded up and increased its levels, and according to the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency, uranium enrichment began 20%, which prompted the United States and European countries to resume negotiations with Tehran to revive the “joint comprehensive work plan”.
The approach to the manufacture of nuclear weapons
With the stumbling of negotiations, Iran decided in June 2022 to remove all the agency’s monitoring equipment from the Fordo facility, and raised the level of fertilization using advanced centrifugal devices.
In November of the same year, it began to enrich uranium with a purity rate of 60%, a percentage of the level required to make nuclear weapons (90%).
In January 2023, the agency revealed, through an unannounced visit to Fordo, that Iran made fundamental amendments to the design of the facility, in contradiction to what was stipulated in the agreement.
Then, in March, she announced the discovery of enriched uranium molecules by up to 83.7%, through environmental samples collected from Fordo months ago, stressing that this percentage is not compatible with the official Iranian statements, and asked Tehran to clarify.
In an escalatory step, in September, Iran prevented a group of enrichment experts at the agency, representing about a third of the inspection team, from reaching the facilities, accusing them of political bias.
In June 2024, the International Atomic Energy Agency Governors Council issued a resolution calling on Iran to cooperate with the agency and allow inspectors to return.
Iran has reports to inform the agency with its intention to expand the enrichment capabilities in Fordo, by installing 8 new chains of advanced IR-6 (IR-6), capable of achieving higher fertilization rates and more quickly, and at the end of the month, the devices have already been installed according to the agency’s reports.
As a result, the United States imposed new sanctions on the Iranian oil trade, as part of its response to Tehran’s expansion in its nuclear program, which Washington considers does not serve peaceful and verified goals.
The agency reported in its report issued on December 6, 2024 that Iran has made extensive changes in Fordo, which included the creation of a 3 -phase enrichment, allowing natural uranium enrichment to 60% almost continuously and sequentially, with the possibility of adjusting the system easily to produce uranium intended to make nuclear weapons.
According to the same report, this change may raise the average monthly production of enriched uranium by 60% to more than 34 kilograms, which is equivalent to about 6 times the amount that Iran was producing in both Fordo and the Natanz station in the previous months.
With the increase in international pressure, Tehran agreed in December 2024 to tighten the International Atomic Energy Agency to control the Fordo facility, with the aim of enhancing guarantees measures, by intensifying inspection and monitoring activities.