IAEA chief: Fordow centrifuges 'no longer operational' after US bunker-buster strikes

[Richard D]

Source: Ynet News

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Thursday that the uranium enrichment centrifuges at Iran’s underground Fordow facility are believed to be no longer operational, following U.S. airstrikes using bunker-buster bombs.

In an interview with French media, Grossi explained that, while satellite imagery alone cannot fully reveal the extent of the damage at Fordow, “we already know the centrifuges are no longer active.”

He noted that the machines, which enrich uranium, are extremely sensitive to vibration and require highly precise calibration. “Given the strength of the bombs and the technical characteristics of the facility, significant physical damage was unavoidable,” he said. “That leads to a fairly accurate technical conclusion.”

Read more: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkbeafo4le

[Kali]

1. unless they were moved?

[Richard D]

3. I'm far from an expert . . .

. . . but I believe that once installed, they are not so easy to move and reinstall elsewhere. They had 20-22 thousand such centrifuges. Not exactly something you could take apart and throw in the back of a truck. They are extremely sensitive to vibration.

[Kali]

4. Yes

It occurred to me just moving would fuck up calibrations. What a mess! We need some adults involved and mostly we just have clowns.

[thesquanderer]

2. No one claims there was no damage. The question isn't whether the centrifuges are currently operational...

Last edited Sat Jun 28, 2025, 07:19 AM - Edit history (1)

...let's assume not. Then the real question is whether or not they will be back on line in merely a matter of months.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

5. "A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation" - Oxford University Press

The public diplomacy effort also enlisted newspapers
(like the Yedioth Group) to publish articles and interviews in print and online, aimed at fostering
pro-Israeli sentiment without disclosing financing (U.S.$100,000) both in Israel and abroad. The
online branch of the group, called Ynet, published promotional videos produced by the Ministry
of Strategic Affairs, as well as three paid-for interviews with a ranking official at the ministry.
Finally, some funds were channeled to proxy organizations outside Israel, as part of a network
of pro-Israeli think tanks and associations.

https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/07/ct_appendix.pdf


Not a trustworthy source.

[Richard D]

6. Please find . . .

. . . something from a trustworthy source that contradicts it. Maybe like Hamas? Seems to be the goto for a lot of people these weird days.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

11. Weird.

The “go to” for your side is always “if you don’t like genocide you must be with Hamas!”.

[Beastly Boy]

7. Media Bias Fact Check

Last edited Fri Jun 27, 2025, 09:20 AM - Edit history (1)

Overall, we rate Ynetnews as Left-Center Biased based on editorial positions that moderately favor the left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ynetnews/

One would be hard-pressed to find a more reliable source.

[Richard D]

8. There are many other sources as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/world/middleeast/centrifuges-fordo-damage-iran.html

[Deminpenn]

9. This story from the UK Telegraph seems to be a good compilation of

how knowledgeable people are assessing the damage.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/badly-damaged-iran-nuclear-programme-060000847.html

Grossi's opinion is called on the "optimistic" side of the preliminary assessments.

[Javaman]

10. centrifuges are usually detected via heat signature, because they require a lot of concentrated power.

their conclusion is very weak.

what we need are heat signature photos prior to the bombing.

I can bet you, if we see those photos, they would be dark too.

they were shut off and moved.

while centrifuge plants are enormous complex the basic tech and be easily moved.

[Prairie Gates]

12. LOL: How do you know?

Well, you see, centrifuges are very sensitive and require a lot of calibration.

OK, and? What's your evidence?

So, these bombs caused a lot of vibrations just based on their size and the satellite imagery.

OK, and?

If the centrifuges are sensitive to vibration, and the bombs caused a lot of vibration, then the centrifuges are no longer operational. QED.

OK, buddy.

This is all very nice deductive reasoning - it's all very Aristotelian, in fact. But what it means is they have no actual observations or information about the centrifuges at all, much less empirical evidence that they were knocked out of commission by these bombings.

[Torchlight]

13. A rather huge disparity between 'no longer functional' and 'obliterates'

I have a three year old computer no longer functional, but it will this weekend. On the other hand, I obliterated a Vega in 1988... and it's never been seen since.