Inside the Plan to Storm Isfahan's Buried Nuclear Tunnels
Iran buried ~440kg of weapons-grade uranium under Isfahan's tunnels before the June 2025 strikes. Now Trump is weighing an unprecedented commando raid to get it back.
When US and Israeli aircraft struck Iran's nuclear sites in June 2025, they hit Natanz and Fordow hard. But the underground tunnel complex at Isfahan, the real vault, survived intact. According to IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi, it now holds approximately 200–220 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%, roughly half of Iran's total stockpile. Other assessments put the full buried figure closer to 440 kilograms. If further enriched to weapons grade, that material is enough for up to 11 nuclear bombs. The West bombed Iran's nuclear programme, and may have inadvertently locked its most dangerous asset underground, beyond anyone's reach.
18 blue containers: the satellite image that changed everything
Days before the first strikes in June 2025, satellite imagery, later published by Le Monde, captured a heavy truck carrying 18 blue containers entering the southern tunnel entrance at Isfahan. Intelligence analysts identified the containers as VPVR/M-type transport units, designed specifically for high-enrichment radioactive materials. The truck's carrying capacity matched Iran's entire known uranium stockpile at the time almost exactly.
The conclusion reached by Western analysts: Tehran moved its most valuable nuclear asset underground hours before the bombs fell. Natanz and Fordow may have been largely empty when they were struck. Isfahan was the vault all along.
Iran buries the entrances - then buries them again
In early February 2026, fresh satellite imagery revealed that Iran had completely sealed all three known tunnel entrances at Isfahan using massive quantities of soil and rock. By April, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) confirmed new activity: makeshift roadblocks, concrete fortifications, and additional layers of debris had been added to all three entrances.
IAEA's Grossi confirmed the material remained "buried under rubble" with no visible engineering activity to extract it, though he could not confirm Iran had lost access entirely.
"Operation Nuclear Dust": the plan Trump was briefed on
Faced with a diplomatic stalemate and growing fear that Iran could quietly activate a secret new enrichment facility (EFEP) inside the tunnels, Trump's military presented him with an unprecedented commando extraction plan, reported by The Washington Post as coming at Trump's own request.
The operation, referred to in the Hebrew-language press as "Operation Nuclear Dust," would require special forces to land deep inside Iranian territory, construct an improvised airstrip capable of receiving heavy cargo aircraft, and use industrial excavation equipment to breach the tunnel fortifications. Experts told the Washington Post and Foreign Policy the operation could take weeks, would expose thousands of troops to live fire, and carries the risk of radioactive contamination.
A US operation in April 2026 to rescue the crew of a downed F-15E, which involved Delta Force operators and MC-130J transports landing on a remote airstrip 400 kilometres inside Iran near Isfahan, is now viewed by analysts as an unintentional dress rehearsal for exactly this kind of mission.
The intelligence dispute: is there a secret access point?
A fierce debate has emerged within the intelligence community over whether Iran retains a hidden access route to the uranium. Some analysts flagged what appeared to be a narrow access point in satellite imagery. But ISIS examined the claim and concluded it was likely a misidentification, an ancient rainwater drainage channel (qanat) with no physical connection to the nuclear site.
The dispute underscores the central uncertainty: nobody in the West knows for certain whether Iran has lost access to its stockpile or is maintaining covert routes to it.
Iran is meanwhile sending contradictory signals. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hinted in March 2026 that Iran would be willing to dilute its uranium stockpile in exchange for sanctions relief, implicitly confirming the material remains under Iranian control despite the physical blockade. But Supreme Leader Khamenei subsequently ordered that the enriched uranium must not leave Iranian soil under any circumstances, directly undermining Trump's stated promise to Israel that all high-enriched uranium would be removed from Iran as part of any future deal.