Iran rebuilds Fordow, expands Natanz tunnels after June strikes, satellite images show

New commercial satellite imagery indicates Iran has begun clearing debris and rebuilding access at the Fordow uranium-enrichment complex following June 2025 strikes that targeted key nodes of its nuclear program.

Excavators and bulldozers are visible working around cratered areas and along damaged access routes, suggesting an effort to reopen tunnel portals and re-establish ground access to the deeply buried site outside Qom. The imagery aligns with earlier assessments that Fordow sustained severe damage to infrastructure housing advanced centrifuges.

At the Natanz nuclear complex, satellite analysis shows intensified construction and tunneling at the ultra-hardened underground project known informally as “Pickaxe Mountain,” a facility carved deep into the Zagros range that was not hit in the June strikes.

Analysts say the expansion could be designed to relocate or conceal enrichment-related work in a location far more resistant to attack than Iran’s legacy halls. Iran has not granted international inspectors access to this site.

Imagery and field reports from June documented visible bomb damage at multiple nuclear facilities, including Fordow, Natanz, and the Isfahan nuclear center, after U.S. forces deployed heavy “bunker-buster” ordnance as part of coordinated strikes. Open-source assessments noted mountain-face perforations and surface impact craters, while Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog reported no off-site radiation spikes.

Subsequent imagery and reporting indicate Iran is prioritizing rapid ground works at Fordow and deep-underground expansion near Natanz, while the overall extent and pace of recovery across other struck locations remains less clear publicly.

Separately, satellite analysis in late August showed swift demolition and clean-up at a nuclear-linked research complex in northern Tehran that was hit during the conflict—activity experts warn could complicate any future forensic assessments of past nuclear-related work at that location.

The Institute for Science and International Security said several affected buildings were razed within weeks. The imagery-based findings land amid rising tensions over inspections and looming U.N. measures.

While Washington has claimed the June operation “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, independent experts caution that know-how and dispersed supply chains reduce the permanence of such setbacks—and that Iran appears to be shifting effort toward deeper, harder-to-reach infrastructure even as it clears and repairs bomb-damaged sites.

Sources: Business Insider, Reuters, CBS News, ABC News, The Washington Post