Israel’s unfinished Arak heavy water reactor in Iran

On the seventh day of the conflict between the two countries, Israeli jets bombed a nuclear reactor under construction in central Iran.

The Israeli military said it targeted the core seal of the Arak heavy water reactor to prevent it from being used for “nuclear weapons development.”

The IAEA confirmed that the reactor had hit and had no nuclear material.

The fuel of the heavy water reactor contains P suitable for nuclear bombs.

Iran said its nuclear program was completely peaceful – according to a 2015 agreement to redesign and rebuild Arak, so it was impossible to produce weapons-grade pluts.

The following year, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had cancelled the Kalandria or reactor core of Arak and made it “unsolvable”.

The latest quarterly report released by the global nuclear watchdog in late May said that the reactor is underway for smaller civilian construction, and Iran is expected to commission this year and begin operations in 2026.

The Israeli military said the Iranian government “deliberately ordered (workers) not to complete the conversion… in order to put pressure on the West.”

It added: “The strike is a target for the components used in Li Ding’s production to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development.”

Black and white aerial footage of the attack released by the military appears to show a bomb hitting the dome roof of the reactor building, as well as several big explosions from Arak, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran, also known as the Khondab.

Daytime videos aired by Iran State Television show two large smokes rising up on the facility. It also quoted Iranian officials as saying the site had been “pre-protected” and that “the attack was not contaminated.”

Satellite image display A big hole in the roof of the reactor building.

It can also be seen that analysts are considered to be destructive distillation towers belonging to adjacent heavy water plants. The IAEA said there was no information that the heavy water plant was attacked.

The Israeli military also announced Thursday that its fighter jets attacked a “nuclear weapon development site” in Natanz.

It is the location where the main Iranian factory produces enriched uranium, which is used to make reactor fuel for power plants, but if enriched further, it can be used for nuclear weapons.

Last Friday, Israel’s first wave of strikes destroyed the above-ground part of the Natanz Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP), where the cascade of centrifuges is rich in uranium, and the site’s power infrastructure.

International Atomic Minister President Rafael Grossi told the BBC on Monday that despite no signs of physical attacks on the Natanz underground centrifuge hall, the sudden loss of power could be severely damaged, even if not destroyed, the centrifuge that operates there.

He said four buildings were destroyed in another attack at the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre on Friday. But in Iran, the underground enrichment plant (if any) in Fordo is hardly visible, he added.

President Donald Trump is said to be weighing whether the United States should participate in the Fordo strike because it is the only country that is large enough to destroy it. Sources told BBC’s U.S. partner CBS News that his mindset was necessary to ban the facility.

In 2018, Trump abandoned his nuclear deal with Iran, saying he stopped the path to the bomb and restored the sanctions that weakened Iran’s economy.

Iran retaliates through increasingly breach of restrictions, especially those related to the production of uranium enriched.

In its quarterly report, the IAEA expressed concern that Iran has accumulated enough uranium, with a purity of up to 60% – away from weapon grade or 90% technology, which could produce nine nuclear bombs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that it was targeting Iran’s nuclear program because “if it is not stopped, Iran can produce nuclear weapons in a very short time.” He provided no evidence.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Israel “crossed the new red line in international law” by attacking the nuclear site. He also insists that Iran’s doctrine is “rooted in our belief in the prohibition and illegality of nuclear weapons.”

Israel is widely considered nuclear weapons, although it neither proves nor denies it.

Israeli air strikes also destroyed Iranian military facilities and weapons and killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.

The Iranian health ministry said on Sunday that at least 224 people were killed, but a human rights group lost informal death toll of 639 on Thursday.

Iran has fired hundreds of ballistic missiles in Israel in response to air strikes that killed at least 24 people, the Prime Minister’s Office said.