Iran may still have access to enriched uranium at site bombed by US last year – report

Iran may be able to access and move highly enriched uranium that had been previously thought to have been buried underground by US strikes on the Isfahan nuclear facility last June, according to a New York Times report.

The Saturday report said US intelligence agencies have determined that there is now a “very narrow access point” through which the uranium could potentially be retrieved.

The newspaper, writing based on anonymous interviews with US officials, said that American spy agencies are constantly surveilling the Isfahan facility and believe they will know of any Iranian attempts to relocate the enriched uranium. US officials have reportedly been debating options of how to secure the uranium for several weeks.

Since the US and Israeli bombings last June, Iran has refused to show what happened to its stockpile of highly enriched uranium or allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to sites where enrichment took place.

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would not rule out the idea of sending ground troops into Iran to secure the country’s stockpiles of enriched uranium.

US President Donald Trump speaks with the media aboard Air Force One during a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, on March 7, 2026. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)
Some critics of the US-Israeli war on Iran launched last Saturday have said airstrikes alone are unlikely to achieve the stated goals of destroying Iran’s military capacity and preventing it from developing a nuclear bomb.

Asked about the use of ground troops in general, Trump did not rule it out, saying: “Could there be? Possibly, for a very good reason — it’d have to be a very good reason.”

“And I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level,” he said.

A senior US official told The Times of Israel last week that Washington’s objectives in talks with Tehran included Iran handing over all of its highly enriched uranium and ensuring that the three nuclear facilities hit by the US last year — Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan — would be decommissioned forever.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who was a key negotiator during the recent round of talks, said last week that Iran’s top negotiators boasted of having enough highly enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs.
In this handout photo released by the Omani Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 26, 2026, US special envoy Steve Witkoff (center) and Jared Kushner hold a meeting with Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi (right) in Geneva. (Omani Foreign Ministry / AFP)
A report in the Axios news site on Saturday said that the US and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war, citing four sources with knowledge of the discussions.

Following strikes in Isfahan last week, the IAEA said Wednesday that while damage was visible at two buildings near the city’s nuclear site, there was no damage to facilities containing nuclear material and no risk of radiological release at that time.

An IAEA report issued in late February, a day before the US and Israel launched renewed strikes on Iran, provided new details about activity at Isfahan, where diplomats have said much of the Islamic Republic’s most highly enriched uranium has been stored in a tunnel complex.

For the first time, the report confirmed that material enriched to up to 20% and 60% had been kept there.

In satellite imagery, the IAEA had observed “regular vehicular activity around the entrance to the tunnel complex at Isfahan in which (uranium) enriched up to 20% and 60% U-235… was stored,” it said.

A February report from the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security based on satellite images showed that all the tunnel entrances to the Isfahan nuclear site had been buried under soil, which “would help dampen any potential airstrike and also make ground access in a special forces raid to seize or destroy any highly enriched uranium that may be housed inside difficult.”