Satellite images indicate construction at Iran's Natanz nuclear plant
Work is apparently underway at a facility where Tehran said an act of sabotage caused an explosion in July.
![Iran's Atomic Energy Vice-President Ali Akbar Salehi, is seen speaking on a screen as he attends virtually the 64th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria on September 21, 2020. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by JOE KLAMAR has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [Ali Akbar Salehi] instead of [Zarif]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_large/public/almpics/2020/10/GettyImages-1228632114.jpg/GettyImages-1228632114.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=LHbVVwav "1228632114")
Iran is carrying out construction work at Natanz, the nuclear facility damaged in a massive fire this summer, according to new satellite images released on Wednesday.
Imagery from the San Francisco-based Planet Labs and carried by the Associated Press indicate construction on a road to the south of Natanz, Iran’s largest uranium-enrichment site. The road heads toward what “analysts believe is a former firing range for security forces at the enrichment facility.”
A fire at the facility in July is believed to have caused enough damage to have significantly set back Tehran’s uranium enrichment. Iran watchers speculated that Israel or the United States were behind the blaze, along with a series of other explosions this summer targeting Iranian military and nuclear sites.
The fire at the Natanz plant may not have halted operations as intended, Bloomberg reported in August. The news outlet cited a document prepared by the UN’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which said that Iranian engineers were moving new generations of advanced centrifuges to the facility for use in uranium enrichment.
