A 400kg stockpile of uranium – enough to make up to 10 nuclear weapons, United States Vice President JD Vance told American broadcaster ABC News – is unaccounted for after Washington dropped six ‘bunker busters’ on three Iranian nuclear facilities last week.
The missing uranium – seen as a powerful bargaining chip for Iran, whenever it opts to resume talks with the US on a new nuclear deal – is enriched to 60 per cent. It needs to be enriched to about 90 per cent to be used as a nuclear weapon.
There are reports Iran may have moved the stockpile, as well as some equipment, days before the attack to a secret location, a claim repeated by Israeli officials to The New York Times.
Satellite images from before the US’ strike showed a line of 16 trucks outside the Fordow nuclear plant, which is built inside a mountain and is considered impervious to most missile attacks.
