The Trump administration is reportedly considering deploying special forces into Iran to secure the country's stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU), which experts say could be used to make at least ten nuclear warheads. The 440kg stockpile, the largest nuclear threat according to US officials, could be turned into weapons-grade uranium relatively easily.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told Congress that “people are going to have to go and get it”, without giving further details. Reports indicate discussions between the US and Israel on how such a mission might be carried out by special forces from either or both militaries. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says 200kg of the HEU is stored in deep tunnels at Iran's nuclear complex near Isfahan, with the remainder at a fortified facility called Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, or Pickaxe Mountain, at Natanz.
Nuclear experts caution that the complexity and risk involved would be considerable. The HEU is stored in metal canisters the size of scuba diving tanks, located deep underground. While US and Israeli forces have trained for such missions, and the US has developed a Mobile Uranium Facility to contain and remove HEU, deploying it would require major ground operations at two sites deep inside Iran. Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear proliferation expert, described the options as “fanciful”, questioning whether a C-17 transport plane could land in the desert to set up a security perimeter and cranes.
President Donald Trump acknowledged the challenge, stating that US troops would not be sent in until Iranian defending forces were “so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight on the ground level”. He did not rule out a ground operation later in the conflict, saying “maybe we will do it later”. Critics, including Democratic congressman Bill Foster and nuclear policy analyst Matthew Bunn, expressed astonishment that the administration launched the war without a clear plan to address the HEU stockpile. Bunn suggested the best solution would be a postwar deal to dilute or ship out the material, but such negotiations were under way when the US and Israel attacked on 28 February.
