According to The New York Times columnist Steven Erlanger, Tehran announced on June 12 that it has another nuclear facility in a “secure and invulnerable location” where centrifuges will soon begin to be installed.
This statement was made by Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, shortly after the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) condemned Iran for lack of transparency and non-compliance with its NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) obligations.
"The new facility is already fully constructed and is located in a secure, invulnerable area," Eslami said."As soon as we finish installing the centrifuges and calibrate them, we will begin the enrichment process."
His statement was unexpected – neither the IAEA nor Western governments have yet confirmed the existence of the facility, and its exact location is unknown. The West has not yet assessed the possibility, and there has been little public international reaction.
IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said in April that the agency had no access to the new facility."They told us, 'This is none of your business,'" he explained.
This third facility, like the Ford and Natanz centers, is believed to be underground. However, it is unclear whether the centrifuges have already been installed or whether the facility is even ready for operation as Eslami claimed.
Nuclear security expert David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security wrote that the facility is likely located south of Natanz, beneath the Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La mountain, which is nearly a mile above sea level.
This mountain is almost half a mile higher than Ford Mountain.
Albright said the new facility appears to be designed for a large-scale centrifuge installation. If it were equipped with state-of-the-art centrifuges, Iran could produce enough enriched uranium for 19 nuclear weapons in just three months, he estimated.
Iran has also announced that older centrifuges at the Fordow Center will be replaced with state-of-the-art ones. However, it remains unclear whether this work was completed before the US strikes.
