Natanz Nuclear Facility
Iran's primary uranium enrichment facility — a vast underground complex in Isfahan Province housing thousands of centrifuges. Previously sabotaged by Stuxnet (2010) and Israeli operations (2021). Central to current nuclear verification concerns as IAEA inspectors have been unable to access the site since hostilities began.
The Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) is Iran’s primary uranium enrichment facility, located approximately 200 km south of Tehran in Isfahan Province. The facility consists of both above-ground pilot enrichment halls and deeply buried underground production halls constructed beneath approximately 8 meters of reinforced concrete and earth overburden.
Nuclear capacity: Natanz has housed thousands of IR-1 and advanced IR-2m/IR-4/IR-6 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium. Iran has enriched uranium to 60% U-235 purity at Natanz — well beyond civilian power reactor requirements (3-5%) and close to the ~90% threshold for weapons-grade material. The IAEA has documented that Iran possesses sufficient enriched uranium, if further enriched, for multiple nuclear weapons.
History of sabotage: Natanz was the target of the Stuxnet computer worm (discovered 2010), widely attributed to a US-Israeli joint operation that destroyed approximately 1,000 centrifuges by causing them to spin out of control. In April 2021, an explosion attributed to Israeli sabotage damaged the facility’s power distribution system and destroyed centrifuge assembly equipment.
Current status: Since hostilities began on February 28, 2026, IAEA inspectors have been unable to access Natanz or verify the status of enrichment activities. Rosatom’s CEO has stated Russia has “lost all contact” with Iran’s nuclear leadership. The combination of verified 60% enrichment capability, loss of international monitoring, and active military conflict creates what analysts describe as a “nuclear verification black hole.”