Israeli strikes hit nuclear facility and reactor under construction in Iran
US and Israeli strikes hit several nuclear facilities in Iran, including the heavy-water reactor at the Arak plant, news agencies reported today, citing Iranian media. Israel claimed responsibility for the strike on the reactor, which is under construction according to previous information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), media outlets reported. The facility was also targeted by Israeli strikes during last June’s war. According to media reports, the latest attacks caused no injuries or radiation leaks.
The heavy-water reactor in Arak is located about 250 kilometers southwest of Tehran. According to an IAEA statement issued last June, when the facility was hit by an Israeli strike, the reactor is under construction. No radiation leak was detected after last year’s strike either.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) said this afternoon CET that US and Israeli strikes had also hit a facility where uranium concentrate is produced. It is then used to make fuel for nuclear reactors. No leaks have been reported in this case either.
The Israeli military announced in the early evening that it had detected “repeated attempts to restore” the reactor in Arak by the Iranian regime following the June strike. “The Israeli military therefore struck the facility again,” Tel Aviv confirmed. The Israeli military also claimed responsibility for the strike on the uranium concentrate production facility, saying the process is “at the beginning of the nuclear weapons production chain.”
The heavy-water reactor project was redesigned after the 2015 nuclear deal so that the facility could not be used to acquire a nuclear weapon. However, according to a statement by the Israeli military today, Iran has not made changes that would prevent the production of plutonium suitable for nuclear weapons, Israeli media reported.
Tehran has long denied having any ambition to acquire a nuclear weapon. The possibility that Iran could obtain a nuclear bomb is one of the reasons the US and Israel cited for launching strikes on Iran about a month ago.
Translation disclaimer
This article is a machine translation of the Czech original and has not yet been fully reviewed. In case of any doubt, please refer to the Czech version.
