Fordo, Uranium enrichment plant and village in Iran
Fordo is a small village and the site of an underground uranium enrichment plant built inside a mountain, located roughly 20 miles (32 km) north of Qom in central Iran. The complex is accessed through tunnels cut into the rock and is covered by a thick layer of earth and stone, making it nearly invisible from the outside.
Construction of the plant began around 2006, but Iran only informed the United Nations about it in 2009, after Western intelligence services had already identified the site. In 2015, under the JCPOA agreement, Iran committed to limiting enrichment activities at Fordo for at least 15 years and converting part of the site to research use.
Fordo sits close to Qom, a city that holds deep religious meaning for Shia Muslims across Iran and beyond. This proximity makes any action near the site politically and symbolically sensitive for many people in the country.
Fordo is not open to the public, as it is a secured nuclear and military installation surrounded by restricted zones. The terrain around it is mountainous and hard to approach, and no civilian access is permitted anywhere near the site.
The plant is buried so deep inside the mountain that conventional bombs cannot reach its core. Only specialized weapons like the American GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed to drill through around 60 meters of earth before detonating, are considered capable of damaging the inner sections.
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