The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday it’s “increasingly concerned” that Iran won’t allow international inspectors at an underground uranium-enrichment plant in Isfahan, 270 miles south of Tehran.
Iran won’t allow officials from the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency at any of its nuclear facilities that were struck last year in a 12-day bombing campaign by Israel and the U.S., according to Reuters.
“The Agency does not know [the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant’s] exact location, status for safeguards purposes or whether it contains nuclear material,” the IAEA said in a report to member states.
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The IAEA said a substantial portion of Iran’s most highly enriched uranium is likely stored inside an underground tunnel complex at the Isfahan nuclear site.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi addressed the concerns in October during a speech before the U.N. Security Council. He said Iran has blocked inspectors at Isfahan since June 2025, leaving its stockpile of highly enriched uranium unverified.
“The Agency’s lack of information about this nuclear material and access to facilities to verify it is a matter of serious proliferation concern … and needs to be rectified with the utmost urgency,” according to the IAEA report.
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