{"id":16427,"date":"2026-07-25T04:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16427"},"modified":"2026-07-25T04:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:48:10","slug":"what-is-pickaxe-mountain-irans-nuclear-site-that-trump-is-threatening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16427","title":{"rendered":"What Is Pickaxe Mountain, Iran\u2019s Nuclear Site That Trump Is Threatening?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"paragraph-content\">\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Experts tells TIME it remains a &#8220;legitimate concern\u201d that Pickaxe Mountain could potentially be used for \u201cmore than just secure storage.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">\u201cThe concern is, whether or not it was developed as an enrichment plant, the fear is now that it would be used as one,\u201d says Acton.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\"><a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/collection\/100-most-influential-people\/2026\/rafael-mariano-grossi\/\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">Rafael Grossi<\/a>, chief of the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog IAEA, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/f96OlQdovg8?t=501\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">told<\/a> PBS in March that Iran had previously \u201cannounced its intention to have nuclear activity\u201d at Pickaxe Mountain, referring to it as \u201cpart of their quite systematic intention to put their most sensitive facilities underground.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Grossi said the IAEA inspectors had not been granted access to the Pickaxe Mountain site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Additionally, the nuclear watchdog has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iaea.org\/sites\/default\/files\/gov2026-33.pdf\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">unable to independently verify<\/a> Iran\u2019s centrifuge capacity and production since 2021, so Tehran may have reserves despite strikes over the last two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">With the destruction of Iran\u2019s other centrifuge related facilities, \u201cthe Pickaxe Mountain complex is a potential candidate site for any Iranian reconstitution of its centrifuge program, from centrifuge component production to centrifuge assembly to uranium enrichment,\u201d ISIS <a href=\"https:\/\/isis-online.org\/isis-reports\/comprehensive-updated-assessment-of-iranian-nuclear-sites-five-months-after-the-12-day-war\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"_self\">stated<\/a> in November 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Experts tells TIME it remains a &#8220;legitimate concern\u201d that Pickaxe Mountain could potentially be used for \u201cmore than just secure storage.\u201d \u201cThe concern is, whether or not it was developed as an enrichment plant, the fear is now that it would be used as one,\u201d says Acton. Rafael Grossi, chief of the United Nations\u2019 nuclear&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blte8e48d047403da93\/6a6353191b920c89e5887178\/pickaxe-mountain-satellite-nov14-25.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}