Overview
- U.S. intelligence reports say Iran recently collapsed underground passages and emplaced explosive mines at sites that store near‑weapons‑grade uranium, with the Isfahan complex singled out as a primary location.
- Negotiators are reportedly close to a framework that would require Iran to surrender, downblend or otherwise neutralize the enriched uranium, but the technical and verification steps for doing that remain unresolved.
- U.S. military planners reviewed options for a ground seizure earlier this year but judged any raid to seize the material too risky and did not carry out an operation.
- Experts say safely recovering the caches would require careful de‑mining, excavation, stabilization and mobile processing equipment and could take weeks, and the fortifications could let Iran claim some material is irretrievable.
- Much of the enriched stockpile was assessed to have been buried after strikes in June 2025, and the IAEA had estimated roughly 440 kilograms enriched up to 60% existed before post‑strike access was cut off, a quantity that shortens the path to weapons‑grade material if facilities run.