UN Agency Warns of Nuclear Risk in Iran Strikes
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a stark warning that it “cannot rule out” a possible radiological release from the ongoing military strikes in Iran. While no direct hits on nuclear facilities are confirmed, the agency says the risk of accidental damage is rising as the conflict intensifies.
While the IAEA has not confirmed any direct hits on Iran's key nuclear sites, including the Bushehr power plant or the Tehran research reactor, conflicting reports have emerged regarding the Natanz facility. Iran's envoy to the IAEA claimed Natanz was attacked, and later satellite imagery from private firms appeared to show damage to several buildings, including access points to underground enrichment halls. Iran's primary enrichment facilities are at Natanz and the heavily fortified, underground Fordow site. Prior to past strikes in June 2025, Natanz housed tens of thousands of centrifuges, including advanced IR-2 and IR-4 models, while Fordow was used for enriching uranium to 60% purity—a short technical step from weapons-grade. The Esfahan complex is also critical, responsible for converting uranium ore and fabricating fuel. This is not the first time Iran's nuclear program has been physically targeted. A major explosion in July 2020 destroyed a centrifuge assembly plant at Natanz. Additionally, a series of assassinations between 2010 and 2012 killed four Iranian nuclear scientists, acts that Tehran attributed to Israel and the United States. The risk is heightened by the collapse of international oversight. Since the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, Iran has progressively breached limits on uranium enrichment and stockpiles. Following strikes in June 2025, Iran barred IAEA inspectors from its nuclear facilities, meaning the agency has had no direct access for months and cannot verify the current state of the program. The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, Iran's only operating commercial reactor, was built by Russia's state-run Rosatom. The Russian firm was also contracted to construct two new reactor units at the site. However, in early March 2026, the head of Rosatom announced that operations at the Bushehr plant have been suspended. The most sophisticated attack on Iran's program was the Stuxnet computer worm, discovered in 2010. Believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli cyberweapon, Stuxnet manipulated and destroyed nearly a fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges at Natanz by causing them to spin out of control, all while showing normal operations on monitoring systems.
