Nadene Goldfoot
1. Arak:The Arak area has several industrial complexes, some with ties to the nuclear program, in particular the IR-40 reactor under construction and a heavy water production plant, both near Arak. In the late 1990s, one of these complexes may have manufactured a high-explosive test chamber transferred to Parchin, which the IAEA has asked to visit. The Arak area is also thought to hold factories capable of producing high-strength aluminum for IR-1 rotors.
Arak was one of the two sites exposed by a spokesman for the People's Mujahedin of Iran in 2002. In August 2006, Iran announced the inauguration of the Arak plant for the production of heavy water. Under the terms of Iran's safeguards agreement, Iran was under no obligation to report the existence of the site while it was still under construction since it was not within the 180-day time limit specified by the safeguards agreement. This reactor is intended to replace the life-expired 1967 Tehran Nuclear Research Center research reactor, mainly involved in the production of radioisotopes for medical and agricultural purposes (they say).
2. Fordow: Fordow, near the city of Qom, is the site of an underground uranium enrichment facility at a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base. Existence of the then-unfinished Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) was disclosed to the IAEA by Iran on 21 September 2009, but only after the site became known to Western intelligence services. Western officials strongly condemned Iran for not disclosing the site earlier; U.S. President Barack Obama said that Fordow had been under U.S. surveillance. In its initial declaration, Iran stated that the purpose of the facility was the production of UF6 enriched up to 5% U-235, and that the facility was being built to contain 16 cascades, with a total of approximately 3000 centrifuges. Iran argues that this disclosure was consistent with its legal obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, which Iran claims requires Iran to declare new facilities 180 days before they receive nuclear material. However, the IAEA stated that Iran was bound by its agreement in 2003 to declare the facility as soon as Iran decided to construct it. Later, in September 2011, Iran said it would move its production of 20% LEU to Fordow from Natanz, and enrichment started in December 2011. The Fordow plant was constructed at a depth of 80–90 m under the rocks. According to the Institute for Science and International Security, possible coordinates of the facility's location are: 34.88459°N 50.99596°E.
3. Isfahan: The Nuclear Technology Center of Isfahan is a nuclear research facility that currently operates four small nuclear research reactors, all supplied by China. It is run by the AEOI.
The Uranium Conversion Facility at Isfahan converts yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride. As of late October 2004, the site is 70% operational with 21 of 24 workshops completed. There is also a Zirconium Production Plant (ZPP) located nearby that produces the necessary ingredients and alloys for nuclear reactors.
As of 2022 another new nuclear construction development was built in suburban Isfahan. This city played an important role in Jewish history, the foundation of which was Jews exiled by Nebuchadnezzar. Jews were settled there by the Persian Jewish Queen, Shushan-Dukht. It was also the center of the pseudo-Messsiah, Abu Issa al-Isfahani in 700. It's largest quarter was known as Yahudiyyah in the 10th century. By the 12th century, 15,000 Jews lived there. Then, in the 17th century, Jews were persecuted and a number forcibly converted to Islam. 3,000 Jews were living there at the time of the 1979 Islamic Revolution but many have since left.
4. Natanz: Natanz is a hardened Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) covering 100,000 square meters that is built 8 meters underground and protected by a concrete wall 2.5 meters thick, itself protected by another concrete wall. It is located near Natanz, the capital city of Natanz County, Isfahan Province, Iran. In 2004, the roof was hardened with reinforced concrete and covered with 22 meters of earth. The complex consists of two 25,000 square meter halls and a number of administrative buildings. This once secret site was one of the two exposed by Alireza Jafarzadeh in August, 2002. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei visited the site on 21 February 2003 and reported that 160 centrifuges were complete and ready for operation, with 1,000 more under construction at the site. In accordance with Code 3.1 of the Subsidiary Arrangements to Iran's safeguards agreement that were in force up to that time, Iran was not obligated to declare the Natanz enrichment facility until six months before nuclear material was introduced into the facility. According to the IAEA, in 2009 there were approximately 7,000 centrifuges installed at Natanz, of which 5,000 were producing low enriched uranium. In July 2020, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran released photos of a building, presumed to be a centrifuge assembly facility, after a recent explosion. An unnamed Middle Eastern intelligence official later claimed that damage to the facility was caused by an explosive device.
On 28 October 2020, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies released satellite images acknowledging that Iran had begun the construction of an underground plant near its nuclear facility at Natanz. In March 2021, Iran restarted enriching uranium at the Natanz facility with a third set of advanced nuclear centrifuges in a series of violations of the 2015 nuclear accord. On 10 April, Iran began injecting uranium hexaflouride gas into advanced IR-6 and IR- 5 centrifuges at Natanz, but on the next day, an accident occurred in the electricity distribution network. On 11 April, IRNA reported that the incident was due to a power failure and that there were no injuries nor any escape of radioactive material. Further details eventually emerged that it was actually Israel that orchestrated the attack. On 17 April, Iranian state television named 43-year-old Reza Karimi from Kashan as a suspect for the blackout, stating that he had fled the country before the sabotage happened. In July 2021, Iran reportedly limited inspectors' access to the plant.
Iran has had a nuclear program since the country restarted it in the 1980s, has been under economic sanctions for it since the 1990s, faced the threat of war over it in the 2000s, and now has come through 20 grueling months of negotiations just to keep part of the program in place.
On its face, Iran's nuclear program makes very little strategic sense. Though Iran insists the program is only for peaceful purposes, it's far beyond what's necessary to generate nuclear power. And it's never made sense as an energy investment; other types of energy are more efficient for Iran, and its grid desperately needs upgrading.
"No sound strategic energy planning would prioritize nuclear energy in a country like Iran," Iran experts Ali Vaez and Karim Sadjadpour wrote in a Carnegie Endowment report.
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis is the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at CNS. Before coming to CNS, he was the director of the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation. Prior to that, he was executive director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, executive director of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a desk officer in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. This is why arms control experts believe that, as Monterey's Jeffrey Lewis put it, the program "could be used to make a bomb, and we think was originally intended to make a bomb." That said, there is an important distinction between developing nuclear weapons capability versus building an actual bomb (more on that later).
Iran's Muslims are of the Shi'a branch of Islam, differing from the main line of Sunni as much as Catholicism differs from Protestants. Their world in Iran is dictated by Ayatollahs, religious leaders politically motivated.
Arabs are a minority in Israel's only Jewish state in the world, making up 20% of the population. That population was 126,000 in 1948, by 1972 numbered 458,500. They were 95% illiterate. By 1972 5%. School population was 10,000 in 1948; 1972 was 117,000. University students in 1948 was 15; in 1972 was 1,000. Teachers in 1948 was 286, 1972 was 5,000. Births in hospitals in 1948 was 4%, in 1972 was 93%. Using electricity in 1948 was 0; by 1972 was 93%. Life expectation in 1948 was 52; by 1972 was 70. They made life improvements by being under Israeli law.
Iran now has Hezbollah terrorists in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon working for them so in effect, Iran can be closer to hit Israel. "It has rapidly expanded its realm of operations. It has sent legions of fighters to Syria. It has sent trainers to Iraq. It has backed rebels in Yemen. And it has helped organize a battalion of militants from Afghanistan that can fight almost anywhere. "
Iran's Khamenei says that "Israel is not a country but a terrorist base".
He says, "fight against Israel is a public duty. "
Ahmadinejad, under Ayatolah Khomeini, said that "Israel will be eliminated."
Eradicated off the face of the Earth. As you recall, it was about in 2005 when he [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] said before that Israel -- he would use a nuclear weapon to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.”
— Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), September 19, 2011
“Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map.”
— President Obama, speech to the U.N. General Assembly, September 21, 2011
One thing Israel has learned about Muslims is that they warn you first before they strike. You can depend on 2 other incidents where Syria and Iraq had built nuclear reactors and Israel in defense destroyed them. Israel cannot even depend on friends of the moment. They must depend on their own capability to defend themselves. Friends can always be swayed not to back you up. Israel takes these threats seriously. Very seriously.
The problem Israel will have is where to hit first. There are even more than four.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_facilities_in_Iran
https://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/9002905/why-iran-nuclear-program
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210507-iran-s-khamenei-says-israel-not-a-country-but-a-terrorist-base
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-assembly-ahmadinejad/in-new-york-defiant-ahmadinejad-says-israel-will-be-eliminated-idUSBRE88N0HF20120924
https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/no-visible-evidence-of-explosion-at-esfahan-nuclear-site-adjacent-facility-/8
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/world/middleeast/hezbollah-iran-syria-israel-lebanon.html
