Bloomberg has published a report shedding light on the growing challenge facing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in monitoring Iran’s nuclear program after the latest U.S. and Israeli strikes. According to the report, the bombardment not only damaged infrastructure but also compromised surveillance systems and potentially concealed key uranium enrichment sites.
The translated report, originally released by Arabi21, states that U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to launch an attack on three of Iran’s main nuclear facilities may have harmed the country’s declared nuclear capabilities. However, it also created a complex new dilemma: locating and tracking the remaining parts of Iran’s nuclear program.
While Trump claimed the fortified sites were “destroyed” during the overnight strikes, independent analysis has yet to confirm these assertions. Experts on Iran’s nuclear program say the airstrikes have complicated efforts to track enriched uranium and verify that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
According to the report, IAEA inspectors remain on the ground in Iran. Before the Israeli airstrikes on June 13, inspectors were conducting daily inspections at several nuclear sites. Now, they are assessing the damage, amid growing concerns that Iran might relocate its activities to undisclosed underground facilities.
The report notes that Trump ordered stealth bombers equipped with bunker-busting munitions to target uranium enrichment sites in Natanz and Fordow — both heavily fortified and buried deep underground.
Satellite images captured on Sunday and released by a commercial space tech firm show fresh craters and possible tunnel collapses at the Fordow site, as well as holes in the mountain surface. However, a key support building believed to control ventilation in the enrichment halls appears undamaged. According to the IAEA, no radiation leak has been detected at the location.
At the Natanz facility, new satellite imagery reveals a crater roughly 5.5 meters wide. Maxar Technologies, the space imaging firm, confirmed the crater was located directly above an underground enrichment area. However, they clarified that this does not conclusively prove the 40-meter-deep, steel-and-concrete-reinforced structure was breached.
U.S. Air Force General Dan Kane told reporters on Sunday that a final damage assessment would take time. Meanwhile, IAEA inspectors have been unable to access or verify the location of Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium for over a week. Iranian officials have reportedly removed IAEA seals and relocated the material to an undisclosed location.
Darya Dolzikova, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, stated that Iran is now highly unlikely to increase its cooperation with the IAEA following the escalation.
She remarked:
“The more probable outcome is that Iran concludes transparency is futile, and opts to build deeper and more secretive facilities to avoid future strikes.”
The IAEA has since called for an immediate ceasefire to enable it to respond to the crisis. Director-General Rafael Grossi announced that the agency’s 35-member Board of Governors will convene in Vienna on Monday to assess the situation.
Before the U.S. involvement, satellite imagery showed limited success from four days of Israeli bombing. The damage to the Natanz facility — located 300 km south of Tehran — appeared to be restricted to external electrical infrastructure and transformers.
Bloomberg reports that U.S. forces also struck Isfahan’s nuclear technology and research center, located 450 km south of Tehran, following an IAEA reassessment of prior Israeli damage. A Saturday night update confirmed that the facility suffered extensive damage, based on satellite imagery and communications between the IAEA and Iranian counterparts.
Recent images show widespread destruction, including several industrial buildings that Bloomberg had identified earlier in the week. Experts had previously warned that targeting these facilities could lead to radioactive and chemical contamination.
The report stresses that the IAEA’s core mission is to track trace amounts of uranium globally to ensure it’s not diverted for military use. But as noted by Tariq Rauf, former head of the IAEA’s Verification and Security Policy office, the latest bombardments have made monitoring Iranian uranium significantly more difficult.
“It will now be extremely hard for the IAEA to verify the material balance of approximately 9,000 kilograms of enriched uranium, especially the 410 kilograms enriched to 60%, which is close to weapons-grade,” Rauf explained.
Last week, inspectors admitted they had lost the ability to track Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium due to ongoing Israeli airstrikes, which have obstructed their fieldwork.
According to the report, this stockpile — enough to build around 10 nuclear warheads — was last seen in Isfahan. Experts believe it could have already been moved off-site, as the material can be contained in as few as 16 small canisters.
Darya Dolzikova added:
“There are still open questions about where Iran may be storing its enriched stockpile. But it’s highly likely it has already been transferred to undisclosed fortified locations, far from the reach of potential U.S. or Israeli strikes.”
Bloomberg concludes by noting that Iran continues to produce nuclear fuel for energy and weapons through a vast, fortified infrastructure, involving thousands of engineers and technicians working across dozens of locations.
While military analysts await more satellite data to determine the full impact of Trump’s strike orders, nuclear oversight experts have warned that their work has now become far more challenging.
Former IAEA inspections director Robert Kelley told Bloomberg that the strikes not only disrupted uranium tracking efforts but also crippled the tools inspectors rely on.
“That includes forensic techniques to detect potential diversion of nuclear material. After the strikes, with materials scattered, environmental sampling becomes useless,” Kelley explained.
“All isotope particles have been dispersed, with indefinite half-lives, making source identification impossible.”
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