A fire burned a building above Natanz’s underground nuclear enrichment facility in Iran, though authorities say it did not affect its centrifuge operation or cause any radiation emission.
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TEHRAN, Iran – A fire broke out early Thursday in a building above Natanz’s underground nuclear enrichment facility in Iran, though authorities said it did not affect its centrifuge operation or cause any radiation emissions.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization tried to minimize the fire, calling it an “incident” that only affected one “industrial shed” under construction, spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. However, both Kamalvandi and Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi rushed after the Natanz fire, which has been the target of past sabotage campaigns.
Kamalvandi did not identify what damaged the building, although Natanz governor Ramazanali Ferdowsi said a “fire” hit the site, according to a report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
A photograph later released by the atomic energy agency showed a brick building with burn marks and its apparently destroyed roof. It was unclear if that was the “shed” Kamalvandi was referring to. Debris on the floor and a door that looked ripped from the hinges suggested that an explosion accompanied the fire.
Data collected by a satellite from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggested that the fire broke out around 2 am local time in the northwest corner of the Natanz complex. The flames from the fire were bright enough to be detected by the satellite from space.
“There is physical and financial damage and we are investigating to assess,” Kamalvandi told Iranian state television. “Also, there has been no interruption to the enrichment site work. Thank goodness the site continues its work as before.”
Construction work had not been previously announced at Natanz, a uranium enrichment center some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital Tehran. Natanz includes underground facilities buried under about 7.6 meters (25 feet) of concrete, offering protection against air strikes.
Natanz, also known as the Fuel Enrichment Pilot Plant, is among the sites now monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency after Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The IAEA said in a statement that it was aware of reports of the fire. “We currently do not anticipate any impact on IAEA safeguards verification activities,” the Vienna-based agency said.
Located in the central Isfahan province of Iran, Natanz houses the country’s main uranium enrichment facility. There, centrifuges rapidly spin uranium hexafluoride gas to enrich uranium. Currently, the IAEA says Iran enriches uranium to about 4.5% purity, above the terms of the nuclear deal, but well below the 90% weapon grade levels. It has also conducted tests on advanced centrifuges, according to the IAEA.
The United States under President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018, creating months of tension between Tehran and Washington. Iran is now breaking all production limits set by the agreement, but it still allows IAEA inspectors and chambers to monitor its nuclear sites.
However, Natanz became a point of controversy last year, as Iranian officials refused to allow an IAEA inspector to enter the facility in October after allegedly testing positive for traces of explosive nitrates. Nitrates are a common fertilizer. However, when mixed with the right amounts of fuel, the material can become as powerful an explosive as TNT. Swab tests, common in airports and other secure facilities, can detect their presence on skin or objects.
Natanz also remains of particular concern to Tehran as it has been the target of sabotage before. The Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, disrupted and destroyed the centrifuges at Natanz amid Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
Satellite photos show an explosion last Friday that rocked Iran’s capital from an area in its eastern mountains that analysts believe is hiding a system of underground tunnels and missile production sites. Iran attributed the explosion to a gas leak in what it describes as a “public area”.
Another explosion from a gas leak at a medical clinic in northern Tehran killed 19 people on Tuesday.
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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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