Public sentiment is predominantly skeptical and concerned regarding Iran's nuclear capabilities and intentions. Many commenters advocate for military action and express distrust of Iran's government, while also questioning the effectiveness of diplomatic efforts. There is a widespread fear of geopolitical consequences if Iran's nuclear program is revived, alongside frustration over perceived media double standards regarding nuclear weapon discussions between Iran and Israel.

Iran

United States

Israel

Please discuss politics in r/nuclearpolitics

ScrappyPunkGreg

I can't think of any way you or I could verify it, but [the Iranian foreign minister claims ](https://thehill.com/policy/international/5414085-iran-foreign-minister-nuclear-sites-destroyed/)they were destroyed and that Iran plans to rebuild them.

[US intel claims one of three sites](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/new-us-assessment-finds-american-strikes-destroyed-only-one-three-iran-rcna218761).

GogurtFiend

[deleted]

Still no credible evidence Iran was actively trying to make a nuke. All the US destroyed was a diplomatic bargaining chip. But they will definitely rebuild.

Significant_Goose_75

We won't know for sure until if or when Iran tests a nuclear device.

For years Iran used an open approach under the JCPOA collaborating with the IAEA to avoid being subject to sanctions from the West, Russia and China. They deliberately stayed a threshold power hoping that this would be sufficient to maintain deterrence. They were isolated from everyone and

Three things have changed: 
1. That deterrence failed when Iran was attacked by both Israel and the US. 
2. Now Europe has imposed the punitive "snap back sanctions" for violating the agreement. The US was already doing this.
3. Iran is no longer isolated with China and Russia declaring the snap back sanctions are illegal. Iran now has allies and friends among the BRICS and non-aligned countries who will not only trade with it but even defend it. It is less isolated than Israel and arguably the United States. 

The appropriate response is nuclear ambiguity, the same policy Israel has adopted for decades. 

To provide a pretext  for another attack, at some stage Israel &amp; the US may claim they've discovered Iran has resumed it's nuclear program. Israel and US intelligence services (and those of their allies) are no longer credible given their track record. 

Iran has the support it needs to continue a clandestine nuclear program should it choose to do so. Sadly another Israeli attack is almost inevitable regardless of genuine evidence.

Galerita

What’s to stop the US from just striking again? 

reminds me of when the rebels killed all those innocent contractors on the death star that was under construction in return of the Jedi

sailhard22

So we can't put up the Mission Accomplished banner again?

tenebre

Are they trying to get US and Israel into a land invasion which would be disastrous for all parties involved but is also their only chance. Hope it doesn’t come to that.

asakkings

If the U.S. really wanted to, they could wipe the entire country between its cheeks within a single afternoon. 

Iran already lost air space dominance, they have absolutely 0 chance of standing up to America in a serious armed conflict, 

Why do you think they haven’t retaliated? They have no ability to. 

We got thousands of troops and weaponry in some undisclosed desert location, waiting for the phone call to go and level whatever Iran has left. 

This is all for show, to not look weak. They will concede within a week.

Slightly-Blasted

Like when you knock down a kids sand castle and just as their finishing the re-build, step on it again lmao

RandomPenquin1337

As long as the Iranian regime insists that it will 'wipe out Israel' - then I doubt very much this has ended.

Zealousideal_Rise716

Oof. Sound like they're asking for another round of fireworks.

Jeekobu-Kuiyeran

Insert George Bush “Mission Accomplished” meme

Fernmixer

Can Iran make up their minds? Do they have nuclear facilities or not?

rain168

Won’t rebuilding all that take years? I would call that a W

Winter-Recognition34

Why would Iran announce that? This whole situation feels so fake and manufactured

dyals_style

JacketStraight2582

Savageseas88

neotorama

yeetbird1

Most likely Iran military and nuclear installations will become weapons free zone for Israel and US for the foreseeable future. They won't be given a chance to rebuild air defenses, let alone nuclear sites.

qu_o

Then the US will bomb the nuclear sites again. And again. And again.

Formal-Cry7565

Which was my initial query! Like they have the knowledge, what will stop them from rebuilding it??


Also, does this confirm that the sites were destroyed?

They won’t have time to finish before the regime change 
So it does not matter

Porn4me1

primaboy1

igpila

I've been thinking today that, since Hegseth and Trump's minions can just lie about the "amazing, awesome, greatest" damage done by the bombings, that they probably didn't actually take out shit, and just lie and say, "See all done, trump remains most awesome, excellent, effective, amazing guy ever". My personal guess is no major bunker-busting was done and Iran is dusting the place out and continuing. Typical Trump: lazy, and then count on his maga's just believing him, and onto the next disaster.

MikeW226

Honestly this is the most obvious course of action for Iran, while citing US intelligence that concluded they abandoned their nuclear weapons program decades ago.

Keep pointing out how unreliable the US is as a constant deal breaker, and make Trump look less and less legitimate

Mythosaurus

Temporary-Outside-13

knobjockey21

Safe to say when they are finished … Trump will
Knock them over again and again and again

GirlyFootyCoach

They destroyed (expensive and rare) machinery and equipment, (specifically centrifuges), not reactors. There is no serious radioactive contamination to be expected.

Uranium hexafluoride used in the centrifuges is also toxic and corrosive but this is only a problem if you are right at the territory of the destroyed facilities.

Abject-Investment-42

Short answer is: consider this like a military strike on a chemical plant.   
The plant handles uranium, which is naturally radioactive, but the health risk from uranium radioactivity is very very low.     
However, it is also a heavy metal (like lead, arsenic, mercury), a and the health risk from this chemical properties is far greater than from radiation.        

Yet you will always have more media coverage from strikes on anything remotely nuclear than on any random chemical plant because [radiophobia](https://www.reddit.com/r/radiophobia/s/tzz1YTLgTy) sells.

233C

It's hard to know if any of the hits was on anything comtaining something contaminated.

However even if they spread all radioactive material Iran had, canser risk would rise only within few miles of the plant.

And even if there was Chernobyl level accident in Iran (there can't be as there is no large NPPs there), there would be no health risk in North America

WonzerEU

most likely no. The problem with global accidents is that spent fuel that was used actively in NPP wasn't cooled enough and it melted. Situation is very different at enrichment plant. Un-enriched material - you can hold it in hand. Enriched material is more dangerous, but it's not assembled in a specific way like in reactors nor has it tons of water nearby to act as a moderator (if you didn't know, water isn't used just for cooling in reactors, but to drive the reaction itself by slowing down neutrons).   
What happened in Iran is more comparable to an attack on any chemical facility that has some toxic stuff in it

Moldoteck

Everyone it talking about Natanz, but there was also a strike at the Arak reactor, which has a much higher potential of becoming a radiological hazard:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IR-40

NukeTurtle

Given the depth of the primary facility at Natanz (estimated to be about 100m underground) it's unlikely that the IDF attack actually breached the facility itself.
Even the US made GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb would have difficulty damaging a facility that deep and they've purposely never given any of those to Israel because:

1. They only have a couple dozen 
2. Israel lacks an ultra heavy bomber like the B2 capable of delivering it 
3. The US specifically didn't want Israel to use it on Iran's Natanz and Fordow enrichment facilities.

There is a very small, surface pilot plant at Natanz but I'm not sure it's even active anymore and it handled very small amounts of material when it was. This is likely what Israel destroyed and there's essentially zero risk of a major incident from it.

If they somehow pulled off something clever using SPICE bombs or multiple repeated strikes on the deeper facility it's still unlikely that any significant amount of UF⁶ would escape after being buried that deeply. There's very little radiological risk right now.

If Iran manages to penetrate Israel's Negev Reactor (and they appear to be currently doing so) then there's a higher risk of a radiological incident but we're still talking something on the scale of 1-25km² of contaminated desert, nothing catastrophic. If you're more than ~25km² you'd probably get more radiation from a nearby coal power plant or some nearby granite bedrock releasing radon.

Also the IAEA has said several times in the past 14 hours there's been no spike in atmospheric radiation levels and the instruments they use are *very* sensitive. Chernobyl was first detected within 24 or 48 hours by similar instruments all over Europe, for example.

psychosisnaut

Yes there are certainly contamination risks but the equipment using rad materials are way underground to avoid detection. So the spread of the contamination is minimal.

Bigjoemonger

Evidence, best as anyone can tell, is that the Israelis are beig very careful not to hit things which can release radiation to the atmosphere. IAEA has reported no external leaks so far.

ComputerChemist

The answer is no risk. But of you were to ask the NRC, you can bet damn right they 'd figure out a way to extrapolate some dose from this 😂

cynicalnewenglander

They didn't hit anything significant. Everything is underground.

IntelligentPipe4704

It takes a certain amount of radiation to cause real damage. There’s background radiation everywhere, and tiny particles may not even get through our (dead) skin. If you scratch your skin, that causes way more harm, casually speaking. Even if, by some miracle, one cell gets critically hit, it can repair itself pretty easily and fast, or it just dies, and there are plenty of other cells to take its place. We are all quite safe.

medicsansgarantee

Not allowed to talk about nuclear in the context of weapons. Nuclear is safe. Please stop talking about nuclear weapons!!!

GregMcgregerson

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AutoModerator

Not too surprising, they essentially had 36 hours notice that strikes were possibly happening, after all

DodgyDave12

When a thunderstorm is announced then I could perform unusual evacuating activities around my backyard patio.

Jumping-Gazelle

It was well known that B2 bombers left U.S. bases 2 days ago. I’m sure the Iranians knew they might be headed their way.

Madmandocv1

So they took the stuff out before the US Strikes?

Muted-Conference2900

If Newsweek have access, US military knows when the guy in 3rd truck had a pee and what and where he ate for breakfirst. Not a lot of roads, not a lot of density, They are a light house in the middle of nothing

ouath

I would just say that if Israel/US suspected they were moving anything of significance out of any of those locations, there's enough surveillance over Iran to know where and when that material ended up and it could easily be destroyed if it hasn't been already. If it was radioactive material, they probably won't destroy it out in the open or if they moved it somewhere in which it would be unsafe to do so. I think destroying any radioactive material would have been an added bonus, but my understanding is the goal was to render these facilities useless for the long-term, which is likely what they have done. 

They could use whatever radioactive material they saved to construct dirty bombs to hand off to their proxies or whatever, which is why I'm sure if they moved anything like that Israel/US knows where it went. Mossad is one of, if not the best, intelligence agencies on the planet (especially when it comes to Iran). I would be surprised if they didn't know when and where anything was moved.

IHadADreamIWasAMeme

I think it's more about evacuating the enriched uranium from there so they maintain the capability to build a bomb. Yes, the destruction of the enrichment facility will make it difficult to make MORE enriched uranium, but they already had 400 KG highly enriched (but a tad below weapons grade) that I'm betting they relocated. 

Guessing that may, in part, be why nobody has seen an increase in radioactivity in the area (contamination spread) Even though it was far below ground, one would presume blowing up 400KG of uranium (particularly as some of that can be gaseous as a part of the enrichment process) with ZERO trace of radioactivity around seems unlikely.

transuranic807

There is no chance the actual 60% enriched uranium was buried, it's so easy to hide such a small volume. Any old mine shift a few hundred meters deep could be used for storage.

philly_jake

You don’t think the USA had satellites watching this real time?

n0pe-nope

tristanbrotherton

Is there a scenario where the US would actually warn Iran to remove all the uranium they have - to prevent any environmental release - before striking the facility itself?


Stranger backdoor conversations have occurred.

I think that's known in military circles as "getting the fuck out of Dodge"

Tennents_N_Grouse

There is no point in using STEALTH bombers when you tweet about bombing a site days ahead.

MaximDecimus

By Ellie Cook - Security &amp; Defense Reporter: 

Satellite imagery captured ahead of U.S. strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites showed "unusual" movement around the entrance to Iran's Fordow enrichment facility.

Pictures taken on Thursday and Friday showed "unusual truck and vehicular activity" close to the entrance of the underground Fordow complex south of Tehran, satellite imagery firm Maxar said late on Saturday.

Read more: [https://www.newsweek.com/iran-nuclear-strikes-us-donald-trump-fordow-satellite-imagery-unusual-activity-2088918](https://www.newsweek.com/iran-nuclear-strikes-us-donald-trump-fordow-satellite-imagery-unusual-activity-2088918)

newsweek

&gt;Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful


Every time i see this being said i can't help myself but laugh

Far_Broccoli_8468

&gt; Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful, but international observers believe the country has enriched uranium far beyond what is needed for non-nuclear use.

What non-nuclear use needs to enriched uranium?

Raubritter

General-Depth7489

You think the military doesn't have better satalites than some crap news sites? They know exactly where everything is and where it's going.

Not-a-thott

why can't we figure out how to grow teeth

why can't we figure out how  to return my arm to full use after fall

why can't  we figure out how to make my legs longer so I will look 'tall and fat' instead of  'short and fat'  
why can't we figure out how to live in this world without atomic weapons

why can' we figure out how to get food to starving babies in africa

why can't we figure out how to ensure Africa has vaccines to deter AIDS

SortExcellent3154

Ah yes, the "Iraq has mysterious tubes" line of justification

TheDwarvenGuy

They're moving the enriched uranium, probably

mongooser

Same wording used when bush couldn’t find wmd’s. Don’t fall for it.

fumphdik

They were saving the important stuff like the kitchen equipment and Dave's record collection, and maybe a few pairs of pants for the road trip home

William_T_Wanker

I mean its never a surprise, anyone who lives in Missouri knows from Iraq/afgan invasion they you get plenty of warning because the airbases here just have a constant roar in the air for days before.

All a country has to do is have a phone call from MO to let them know to watch out. lol

So when I read the article and other links related, prior to the US strikes, Iran took the urananium stockpiles and hid them to a safe "location". Iran knew they would target their prime locations and hid them before US could destory them. Maybe the cargo trucks was involved in them? It says "too soon to know the signifcance"

IcelandGalaxy

&gt; international observers believe the country has enriched uranium far beyond what is needed for non-nuclear use.

Uh… u/newsweek, you may wish to revise this… there are no “non-nuclear” uses for enriched uranium. Nuclear is kind of the whole bloody point. Did you mean “non-military” or “non-weapons” use?

cyberentomology

coachhunter2

Trucks arriving at and departing from a manufacturing/technical complex is what they consider being ‚unusual‘?

a_passionate_man

"...The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday it had not detected any increase in off-site radiation after the strikes on the three sites...." 
So apparently the radioactive material and more was evacuated.

Illustrious-Syrup509

I do kind of wonder if they had people inside Fordow, even if just guards, or if was all evacuated.  That would have to be terrifying being trapped in there, as I'm sure Israel took out the entrances.  You'd be in there with the power and lights out for days.  Then Sunday comes along and the bunker busters start landing up above.

strangelove4564

Yeah, they had enough time to get out of there and so Trump bombed empty buildings.

call-lee-free

JaVelin-X-

Ommaumau

"A total of 16 cargo trucks were spotted on the access road leading up to the Fordow tunnel entrance on Thursday, but most had moved to a spot 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) northwest of the access road by the following day, Maxar said.

New trucks and multiple bulldozers had appeared close to the main entrance by Friday, with one truck very close to the main tunnel entrance, the satellite imagery provider said.

The significance of the activity is not yet clear, but Iranian state media reported key nuclear sites had been evacuated ahead of U.S. attacks, with enriched uranium moved "to a safe location."'

ListeningPlease

Iran had enough notice to get critical stuff moved to other locations. First priority, I imagine, is the enriched uranium stock. Second priority would be the high tech centrifuges necessary to convert the 60-80 % uranium to weapons grade. Quickly. 

I can't imagine that the Iranians have been sitting on their thumbs debating whether to move stuff, or didn't have contingency plans.

was_683

same playbook i remember from 2003. does not matter what they removed from there - it has to be weapons of mass destruction.

Torvac

How does one reload a missile silo or are they single use?

Wishbiscuit

CaptainSaladbarGuy

Yeah, that's how it works. Good job. They make missiles and then put them into silos to be protected until launch.

TheOGGhettoPanda

The same people who thought Russia would roll through Ukraine in a week are making the same miscalculation

OvenIcy8646

https://preview.redd.it/8em7dqawpx6f1.jpeg?width=2268&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=119bba9a0713263407948784136ceef06a7729b9

Was bored and explored the area myself, found this scribble on some mountain

PreliminaryThoughts

bajungadustin

A lot of their stuff is underground now too. I'm not sure how Israel is going to destroy all of it without some bunker busters that their aircraft can't carry, or some serious inside work with explosives. It'll be interesting to see what happens, but I fear that Iran may have already made a nuclear warhead. All they have to do is get one through. Last night might have been a test to get intel on how many are needed to overwhelm the missile defenses and where to target.

JRock1276

Ah yes, the google maps experts. This is like that show "What On Earth?" Where they use satellite images and try to figure out what it is, coming up with all sorts of explanations, some crazy, some mild. 

Fun stuff but I'm not about to believe some rando on Reddit zooming into google maps like they know what they're talking about anymore than the crazy guy shouting at me down the street lol

Triskelion24

Makes sense. Less distance to move the nuke when they get one made.

Jeveran

panzerboye

This feels like a coincidence. Two items of infrastructure that require being away from cities - make sense theyd make use of the same empty space with multiple different types of infrastructure.
No causal connection established

eatmorestonesjim

Good for them. I hope they have enough to defend themselves from the genocidal rogue state that calls itself Israel.

Cyber_shafter

Pickupyoheel

YelmodeMambrino

noisette666

These "long range" missile silo's are likely to be anti air missile defense systems if anything. Makes sense to protect such a facility.

KaviCamelCase

New construction has been detected at Iran's Taleghan 2 nuclear site, previously linked to a weapons program and destroyed in an Israeli airstrike last year. A think tank reported that rebuilding began before and continued after the recent conflict with Israel. Although there is currently no clear evidence of nuclear-weapons-related activity, the renovations have raised concerns regarding Iran's intentions.

Iran Nuclear Site Rebuilding

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