Did Iran move the missing 400 kg of Uranium to this secret, much deeper nuclear facility?

Amid the mystery over Iran's 'missing' 400 kg Uranium, speculations are rife that Tehran might have moved the enriched fuel to a lesser-known and even deeper nuclear facility near Natanz at Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La or 'Pickaxe Mountain'.

This facility, which is rarely talked about, is said to be even more heavily fortified than Fordow.  A satellite image published by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) in April showed Iran was building a new security perimeter around the base of Mt. Kolang Gaz La. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had not visited the site in April. "The new complex features halls more deeply buried than the Fordow uranium enrichment site," ISIS said in its April assessment. 

While the whereabouts of this stockpile are presently unknown, many believe Iran could have moved the fuel to Pickaxe Mountain, which could allow Iran to reconstitute its nuclear weapons programme. "A key question is whether Iran will, or maybe already has, secreted fissile material into Pickaxe, or some other unknown facility," Ben Taleblu of the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Financial Times. 

The facility reportedly has four tunnel entrances, making it harder to seal off by bombing. Its underground halls also have more floor space.

Sima Shine, an expert on Iran’s nuclear programme who has worked within the Israeli military establishment for more than 30 years, too believes the Iranians have hidden it "somewhere with somewhere with some hundreds, if not thousands of centrifuges". "They cannot do anything now, tomorrow, but in the future, they have all the capabilities [to build a bomb]," Shine told Telegraph. 

"The [known] sites in themselves, for the time being, are not a lot of threat”, she said. "The problem is, as you know, the material and the advanced centrifuges that I’m sure they have somewhere".

The IAEA estimates that Iran has 400kg of uranium concentrated to 60 per cent purity. When enriched to 90 per cent, it would be enough for nine to 10 nuclear bombs. 

US President J D Vance too claimed that he believes the Uranium is buried somewhere. "Our goal was to bury the uranium, and I do think the uranium is buried, but our goal was to eliminate the enrichment and eliminate their ability to convert that enriched fuel into a nuclear weapon,” Vance told Fox News.

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