As hostilities escalate in the ongoing crisis between Iran, Israel, and the United States, NTI Co-Chair and CEO Ernest J. Moniz and other NTI experts are providing context and helping the public understand these fast-moving developments as they happen.
After the United States bombed three key Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, Moniz joined CNN’s OutFront with Erin Burnett on June 22 to offer his assessment of the damage. “[The military attack] certainly eliminated, at least for some time, some of the Iranian facilities,” he said, adding that “it does appear to me that the Natanz facility was pretty much obliterated,” while “the subterranean damage at Fordow remains to be evaluated.”
Fordow is Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility, located deep underground, making the damage more difficult to assess. In an interview with the New York Times, Scott Roecker, vice president of NTI’s Nuclear Materials Security program, explained that the ventilation shafts, which the attacks appeared to target, “are probably the most vulnerable points of the facility.”
Moniz also explained on CNN that, “[of] immediate concern, I believe it is quite likely that Iran moved all its highly enriched uranium … to a safer place. So, they probably are still in control of this material that is very … close to weapons grade.”
Eric Brewer, deputy vice president of NTI’s Nuclear Materials Security program, elaborated on why that material presents an ongoing risk in an interview with ABC News Live: “Iran has a stockpile of very advanced centrifuges that it’s been building up over time since the United States left the Iran nuclear deal. We don’t know where those centrifuges are and we don’t know where that 60 percent enriched uranium is, so that’s pretty worrying because Iran could ultimately put these things together and begin a renewed program.”
Ultimately, Moniz told CNN, “The real solution in the end has to be a political solution that includes very strong verification … that can satisfy the United States, Israel, and the Europeans, and of course the Iranians have to agree to something that provides them sufficient economic relief.”
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"Such steps would introduce long-recognized security risks and have the unintended consequence of impeding nuclear energy expansion just as momentum builds for such an outcome," writes NTI Co-Chair and CEO Ernest J. Moniz.
“The bottom line is that the countries and areas with the greatest responsibility for protecting the world from a catastrophic act of nuclear terrorism are derelict in their duty,” the 2023 NTI Index reports.
Hosted by the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the three-day workshop brings together senior officials, technical experts, and regional representatives to address emerging nuclear security challenges.
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