U.S. Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites Set Up “Cat-and-Mouse” Hunt for Missing Uranium

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday it was highly likely the sensitive centrifuges used to enrich uranium inside Fordow were badly damaged. It’s far less clear whether Iran's 9 tonnes of enriched uranium—more than 400 kg of it enriched to close to weapons grade—were destroyed.

Western governments are scrambling to determine what's become of it. . . . [UANI Senior Advisor] Olli Heinonen, previously the IAEA's top inspector from 2005 to 2010, said the search will probably involve complicated recovery of materials from damaged buildings as well as forensics and environmental sampling, which take a long time. “There could be materials which are inaccessible, distributed under the rubble or lost during the bombing,” said Heinonen, who dealt extensively with Iran while at the IAEA.