Israel’s strikes at Iranian military facilities since Friday include several nuclear sites — has resurfaced questions about how feasible it is to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. A March report from the Royal United Services Institute shows that it’s not easy.
It requires important firepower and support from the US — and even that joint effort may face challenges in penetrating Iran’s major nuclear fuel enrichment plants, which are intentionally buried underground.
These challenges, and the risk of escalating conflict with such aggressive attacks, are why it should remain a “last resort option,” the report warned.
Natantz’s main nuclear enrichment site was hit by an Israeli strike, but it is unclear how far it can reach the facility where Israeli weapons are buried.
It is not exactly clear how deep Natantz’s underground concentrator is, but some estimates are 8 meters (26 feet) deep.
Israel is believed to have only bombs that can penetrate about six metres, depending on the composition of the Earth and how hardened concrete lies beneath the surface, the report says.
Iran’s second most important enrichment facility, Fordow Plant, is considered even deeper.
Its depth is also unknown, but estimates show that Fordow’s facilities are located between 80 and 90 meters (262 and 295). According to the report, the large-scale weapon intruder bomb of the US GBU-57 reached just about 60 meters deep.
Additionally, the GBU-57 is only delivered by US Air Force B-2 stealth bombers that the US does not own. Even if the US gives a bomb.
Even with the biggest bombs, Iran has other ways to protect its facilities, the report says.
“For example, a buried facility with rooms connected by a long narrow shaft with multiple thick blast doors and multiple external entry points would be much more difficult to guarantee the destruction of a single large cave and/or a buried facility with a single entry and an outlet shaft,” the report states.