Fordow was Iran’s nuclear stronghold, and more than just a uranium enrichment site. It was a symbol of defiance and a bargaining chip in nuclear diplomacy.
The site's fate is uncertain after several 30,000-pound US bunker bombs had been dropped on it. Iranian state media confirmed that part of the Fordow nuclear site area "was attacked by the enemy".
The site became the central flashpoint in the conflict between Iran and Israel and the US. Israeli officials reportedly viewed it as a priority target in their campaign to cripple Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and were pressuring Washington to intervene militarily to help neutralise it.
The site’s extreme fortification made it nearly impossible to attack without advanced bunker-busting weaponry, something only the US possesses.
Where is it?
The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) is located roughly 32 kilometres south of Qom, in the rugged terrain near the small village of Fordow, in central Iran’s Markazi province.
It is deep into the side of a mountain, adjacent to a military base operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
This seems to be no accidental placement: Qom is Iran’s religious capital, home to its most powerful clerics. By anchoring its most sensitive nuclear site here, Iran symbolically tied its atomic ambitions to its religious and ideological core.
Why was it the 'crown jewel'?
Fordow has often been called the crown jewel of Iran’s nuclear programme. The title comes not from size but from strategic survivability, secrecy, and symbolism.
It was one of the most heavily fortified nuclear facilities in the world. Buried under 80 to 100 metres of rock and reinforced concrete, it was designed to withstand military strikes, including those from bunker-buster bombs.
According to weapons analysts, only the US GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator – a 15-tonne bomb – had a chance of breaching it. Israeli bombs, by contrast, are widely considered insufficient for the job.
"Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," said President Donald Trump following the strikes on Fordow and other Iranian nuclear sites.
Fordow was built in secret in the mid-2000s and only revealed in 2009 after western intelligence agencies exposed its existence. Iran confirmed the site under pressure, but the episode fed suspicions that Tehran was pursuing a covert path to a nuclear weapon.
What happens inside?
At its core, Fordow was a uranium enrichment facility. This means it was not producing bombs or warheads, but spinning centrifuges that increase the concentration of fissile isotopes in uranium.
It was originally meant to enrich uranium up to 20 per cent for the Tehran Research Reactor. But it was enriching uranium to 60 per cent before the US strikes, a level approaching weapons-grade.
It hosted both older IR-1 centrifuges and more advanced IR-6 machines, and was estimated to have 100–200 nuclear engineers, technicians, and support personnel, many trained at elite universities.
What about IAEA access?
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has visited Fordow several times.
Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), Iran agreed to suspend enrichment at Fordow and convert the facility to a research centre. The IAEA installed surveillance equipment, and inspectors visited regularly.
But in 2019, Iran resumed enrichment at the site in response to the US withdrawal from the JCPoA. Since 2023, Iran has reduced IAEA access, and in 2024 expelled several senior inspectors.
Do the US strikes risk a radiation leak?
Pete Bryant, honorary professor in physics at the University of Liverpool, told The National that Fordow is a uranium enrichment facility, not a nuclear power plant, and therefore cannot experience a nuclear meltdown of the kind seen at Fukushima in Japan or Chernobyl in Soviet Ukraine.
“It's important to distinguish between nuclear power plants and uranium enrichment facilities, as they are fundamentally different in function, design, and risk,” he said.
“Chernobyl and Fukushima were full-scale nuclear reactor incidents under very specific, high-risk conditions. Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities are not reactors, do not have comparable inventories of radioactive material, and cannot experience similar failures.”
Iran’s Nuclear Safety System Centre said “no nuclear contamination” was detected around nuclear sites following US attacks.
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Russia v Scotland, Thursday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
The Details
Article 15
Produced by: Carnival Cinemas, Zee Studios
Directed by: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Zeeshan Ayyub
Our rating: 4/5
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Kashima Antlers 3 (Nagaki 49’, Serginho 69’, Abe 84’)
Guadalajara 2 (Zaldivar 03’, Pulido 90')
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
POWERWASH%20SIMULATOR
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FuturLab%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESquare%20Enix%20Collective%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsole%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENintendo%20Switch%2C%3Cstrong%3E%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPlayStation%204%20%26amp%3B%205%2C%20Xbox%20Series%20X%2FS%20and%20PC%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Results
6.30pm: The Madjani Stakes (PA) Group 3 Dh175,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Aatebat Al Khalediah, Fernando Jara (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer).
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
7.40pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Avenue, Fernando Jara, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: My Catch, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
8.50pm: Dubai Creek Mile (TB) Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh190,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Golden Goal, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Maratha Arabians 107-8 (10 ovs)
Lyth 21, Lynn 20, McClenaghan 20 no
Qalandars 60-4 (10 ovs)
Malan 32 no, McClenaghan 2-9
Maratha Arabians win by 47 runs
The%20National%20selections
%3Cp%3E6pm%3A%20Barakka%3Cbr%3E6.35pm%3A%20Dhahabi%3Cbr%3E7.10pm%3A%20Mouheeb%3Cbr%3E7.45pm%3A%20With%20The%20Moonlight%3Cbr%3E8.20pm%3A%20Remorse%3Cbr%3E8.55pm%3A%20Ottoman%20Fleet%3Cbr%3E9.30pm%3A%20Tranquil%20Night%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
THE%20SWIMMERS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESally%20El-Hosaini%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENathalie%20Issa%2C%20Manal%20Issa%2C%20Ahmed%20Malek%20and%20Ali%20Suliman%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
- Steve Baker
- Peter Bone
- Ben Bradley
- Andrew Bridgen
- Maria Caulfield
- Simon Clarke
- Philip Davies
- Nadine Dorries
- James Duddridge
- Mark Francois
- Chris Green
- Adam Holloway
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Anne-Marie Morris
- Sheryll Murray
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Laurence Robertson
- Lee Rowley
- Henry Smith
- Martin Vickers
- John Whittingdale
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Federer's 11 Wimbledon finals
2003 Beat Mark Philippoussis
2004 Beat Andy Roddick
2005 Beat Andy Roddick
2006 Beat Rafael Nadal
2007 Beat Rafael Nadal
2008 Lost to Rafael Nadal
2009 Beat Andy Roddick
2012 Beat Andy Murray
2014 Lost to Novak Djokovic
2015 Lost to Novak Djokovic
2017 Beat Marin Cilic
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan v Juventus
Saturday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Watch the match on BeIN Sports
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15
Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)
Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49
