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March 2, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n U.S.\u2019s and Israel\u2019s war with Iran leaves uranium stockpiles uncertain<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s war with Iran over its nuclear ambitions raises new questions about the country\u2019s uranium stockpile<\/p>\n By Dan Vergano edited by Claire Cameron<\/span><\/p>\n A 2021 overview of the Natanz uranium enrichment site in Iran.<\/p>\n Satellite image (c) 2019 Maxar Technologies\/DigitalGlobe\/ScapeWare3d\/Getty Images<\/p>\n This past weekend the Trump administration and Israel started a war with Iran over the latter nation\u2019s nuclear ambitions. The U.S. and Israel struck numerous military and leadership targets linked to the country\u2019s uranium enrichment program. But the fate of Iran\u2019s partly enriched uranium\u2014the casus belli of the war\u2014is unlikely to be settled by the conflict, nuclear nonproliferation experts say.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout effective monitoring, the whereabouts and security of Iran’s nuclear material will now become even more uncertain,\u201d said Daryl Kimball, Thomas Countryman and Kelsey Davenport, nuclear nonproliferation experts at the Arms Control Association in Washington, D.C., in a statement released on Saturday.<\/p>\n The U.S. conflict is \u201cnot justifiable on nonproliferation grounds,\u201d they said, adding that there were reports of progress toward a deal to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program before the war began.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Last Friday, hours before U.S. bombs struck Tehran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report that indicated that Iran has not allowed inspections at any of its four uranium enrichment facilities since American and Israeli airstrikes on the three such sites that were then known to be operational were carried out last June.<\/p>\n Uranium needs to be concentrated, or enriched, into the isotope uranium 235 in order to serve as either nuclear reactor fuel or material for nuclear weapons. The IAEA estimated that Iran had 441 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium\u2014enough for 10 nuclear weapons if the material were enriched further\u2014before the June 2025 military action. It\u2019s unclear how much remains after the most recent airstrikes, but U.S. and Iranian negotiations ahead of last Saturday\u2019s strikes reportedly included the status of the stockpile, says nuclear safety expert Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. That \u201cwould presume that it was still under Iran\u2019s control,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s enrichment program was set back in the June 2025 airstrikes, says Ian Stewart of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. And the country\u2019s leaders did not seem keen to rapidly rebuild it, perhaps because of fears of further conflict. \u201cIran now cannot quickly acquire nuclear weapons, but the risk is that an extremist could take charge and press ahead with the program,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cNow any attempt to recover that material or further process it, absent a diplomatic agreement and inspector access, would become an urgent issue requiring an even fuller intervention,\u201d Stewart adds.<\/p>\n In January satellite imagery of the Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility suggested that Iran was possibly recovering uranium stocks from the bombed site. The U.S. and Israel reportedly struck Isfahan again this past weekend. In a statement on Monday, however, the IAEA\u2019s director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said that \u201cwe have no indication\u201d that any of Iran\u2019s nuclear installations have been hit. \u201cSo far, no elevation of radiation levels above the usual background levels has been detected in countries bordering Iran,\u201d Grossi said.<\/p>\n Even though it\u2019s not fully-enriched to weapons grade, Iran\u2019s uranium stockpile affords a capability to build \u201cseveral\u201d nuclear explosive devices right now that would have \u201csignificant\u201d yields, Lyman says. It may also be possible to deliver crude bombs by covert means, he adds. \u201cBut the potential cost to Iran of taking such a drastic step may well outweigh any benefits, given the unpredictability of how the U.S. and other nations might respond,\u201d Lyman says.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note (3\/2\/26): This story is in development and may be updated.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 2, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm U.S.\u2019s and Israel\u2019s war with Iran leaves uranium stockpiles uncertain The Trump administration\u2019s war with Iran over its nuclear ambitions raises new questions about the country\u2019s uranium stockpile By Dan Vergano edited by Claire Cameron A 2021 overview of the Natanz uranium enrichment site<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[84,2164,2013,23464,20684,2283,23463,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-45623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-iran","9":"tag-israels","10":"tag-leaves","11":"tag-stockpiles","12":"tag-u-s-s","13":"tag-uncertain","14":"tag-uranium","15":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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