The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), buried deep beneath the mountains near the holy city of Qom, is one of Iran’s most secretive and heavily fortified nuclear facilities.

Iran’s Fordow nuclear site

Built in defiance of international pressure and revealed to the world only after Western intelligence agencies exposed its existence in 2009, the site was deliberately constructed far underground to shield it from aerial bombardment that only a U.S. bomb could hit, a move that could dramatically widen a Middle East war.

Enrichment centrifuges housed within its fortified chambers are capable of producing uranium at near-weapons-grade levels.

Access to the site is tightly controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and inspections by international observers have long been a flashpoint in negotiations.

So far, Israel has targeted multiple Iranian nuclear sites and has damaged the Natanz FEP. But Israeli security officials confirmed on Tuesday that the air force has not targeted Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility.

Israel may have achieved dominance over Iran’s skies but the Fordo nuclear facility – believed to be deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France – has so far remained out of reach of Israel’s weaponry.

Where is the Fordow site?

Fordo is built deep within northern Iran’s rugged, remote mountains. It is designed to withstand air strikes, its underground location shields it from conventional bombs.