The Iranian regime’s retention of key nuclear weapons facilities and the material for building atomic bombs – highly enriched uranium – has led to renewed efforts by the US and Israeli militaries to eliminate the last vestiges of the regime’s program.
On Friday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its “air force attacked the Arak heavy water plant – a key plutonium production site for nuclear weapons.” The Arak factory is located in central Iran.
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An IDF infographic shows Iran’s Arak heavy water plant, described as a key infrastructure for plutonium production. (IDF)
Reuters reported, citing regime media outlet Fars, that joint US-Israeli strikes hit the Khondab heavy water research reactor on Friday.
An IDF statement said: “Heavy water is a unique material used to operate nuclear reactors, such as the inactive Arak reactor, which was originally designed to have weapons-grade plutonium production capabilities. These materials can also be used as a neutron source for nuclear weapons.”
The IDF statement added that “the plant was an important economic asset for the terrorist regime and served as a source of revenue for Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, bringing in tens of millions of dollars to the regime every year.”
The regime’s foreign minister posted a condemnation of Israel and warned the Jewish state: “Iran will exact a HEAVY price for Israeli crimes.”
According to an article published by the Washington DC-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), “The IR-40 Arak, also known as Khondab, heavy water reactor and heavy water production facility date back to the early 2000s… The reactor core design was ideal for making significant quantities of weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear weapons.”
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He said Natanz enriched uranium. “The Iranians conducted recovery operations at the underground fuel enrichment plant there and continued to build this Pickaxe Mountain tunnel complex, which could contain enriched uranium. Right next to it is another tunnel complex that was built much earlier, around 2007… And the Iranians have sealed it off and fortified it. There’s clearly something important there.”
Albright said U.S. and Israeli airstrikes “did not attack the underground site in Isfahan. We know that, according to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]There is highly enriched uranium at that site.” He continued: “There may be an enrichment plant under construction in that underground complex. We would like to see that site attacked.”
Iranian worshipers raise their hands in a sign of unity with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during an anti-Israel rally to condemn Israel’s attacks on Iran, in central Tehran, Iran, on June 20, 2025. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Albright warned that the war should not end like the previous US-Israeli war with Iran in 2025, in which Tehran retained the “crown jewels” of its nuclear weapons program: highly enriched uranium and a number of centrifuges.
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He warned: “You don’t want it to come out of this war with the same kind of nuclear weapons capabilities it had at the end of June, with a greater incentive to build a bomb.” He added that that is why it is so important “to get the job done” in Iran.
