Iran buries enriched uranium in fortified tunnels after US seizure plans emerge
Tehran has collapsed tunnels and laid explosive mines around its stockpile of roughly half a tonne of highly enriched uranium, dramatically complicating access ahead of a possible US-Iran deal to destroy the material.
Underground fortifications
Over the past few weeks Iran has systematically sealed off access to its enriched uranium, collapsing tunnels and booby-trapping entrances with explosive mines, according to five sources familiar with US intelligence assessments cited by CNN. The material, around 500 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, is now significantly harder, more dangerous and more time-consuming to reach than it was just a month ago, the sources said. Much of the stockpile is believed to be buried beneath the Isfahan nuclear complex in central Iran, with smaller quantities at other sites. Experts now describe any recovery mission as extremely high-risk, requiring heavy excavation machinery and mine-clearing operations. The fortification drive accelerated after President Donald Trump signalled publicly in May that the US might order its military to seize the uranium.
We know exactly what is happening. Nobody has even gotten close to there.
US military planning and the decision to pause
In mid‑May, US armed forces prepared for a ground operation inside Iran to capture the nuclear material, but the plan was judged too risky and was ultimately frozen by President Trump, the same sources told CNN. The American side had drawn up detailed scenarios for a land intervention before the President halted it at the last moment. Trump himself later expressed doubts during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity in May, questioning whether Iran could move the stocks without detection. Two of the intelligence sources suggested that Trump’s public comments about the specific stockpile may have pushed Tehran to further reinforce its defences.
A deal taking shape — and its contradictions
Washington and Tehran have been negotiating an agreement to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with securing the enriched uranium as a core US priority. A senior US administration official told reporters on Friday 13 June that the two sides are moving closer to a deal that would require Iran to hand over the uranium to the United States. The material would be destroyed on site and then removed from the country, according to the same official. Yet public statements from American and Iranian officials remain contradictory, and the exact terms are still unclear. A draft of the supposed agreement leaked to a semi‑official Iranian news agency on Friday, prompting an angry reaction from Trump on social media.
- US armed forces finalise plans for a ground operation to seize Iranian enriched uranium.
- President Trump, in a Fox News interview, publicly hints at the existence and location of the stockpile.
- Iran begins collapsing tunnels and laying explosive mines at nuclear sites, according to intelligence sources.
- Senior US official says a deal is close; a draft text leaks, drawing Trump’s angry reaction.
The retrieval conundrum
Even for Iran itself, recovering the uranium has become a complex and hazardous undertaking. Sources told CNN that heavy digging equipment and demining teams would be needed, turning any extraction into a slow, dangerous mission. Scott Rocker, former head of the Nuclear Material Removal Office at the US National Nuclear Security Administration, indicated that the measures would complicate any international effort to verify or dispose of the stockpile. Neither Iran’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations nor the White House responded immediately to requests for comment. The fortifications add a fresh layer of difficulty to the proposed Trump‑Tehran agreement, raising unresolved questions about who would ultimately carry out the perilous retrieval and under what security conditions.
