UN agency calls for ‘extreme restraint’ from both sides
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed on Friday (19 April) there was no damage to Iran’s largest nuclear research complex in an alleged military attack by Israel.
The agency said in a post on social media platform X that it continues to monitor the situation very closely.
The agency called for extreme restraint from all sides, stressing that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts.
Reports started to emerge late on Thursday that Israel has launched a retaliatory attack against Iran and that multiple explosions were heard near the central Iranian city of Isfahan, which is home to a number of important military facilities, including the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre.
The Natanz uranium enrichment plant, Iran’s best known nuclear facility, is about 100 km north of Isfahan and was also said to be unaffected by the strikes.
The attack came days after Iran launched missiles and drones over Israeli territory.
Iranian officials said that its nuclear facilities “were secure”.
According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nongovernmental organisation based in Washington DC, the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre was built with Chinese assistance and opened in 1984. It is Iran’s largest nuclear research complex and employs approximately 3,000 scientists.
Isfahan: A Multi-Purpose Nuclear Centre
Isfahan is a multi-purpose research centre suspected of being the centre of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons programme, the NTI said. It operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors. It also operates a conversion facility, a fuel production plant, a zirconium cladding plant, and other facilities and laboratories.
The Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre and the Natanz uranium enrichment plant are the target of US and UN sanctions.
In July 2022, Iran announced plans to build a new nuclear research reactor at the Isfahan site.
Iran also has one commercial nuclear plant in operation and a second under construction at Bushehr, more than 600 km south of Isfahan.
Tehran has also said it is planning to pour first concrete for a third unit at Bushehr.
In February, the official IRNA news agency reported that Iran had started construction of a four-unit nuclear power station with a capacity of about 5,000 MW in its southern coastal province of Hormozgan.
The agency said the station will be known as Iran-Hormoz and be near Sirik city, about 1,100 km south of the capital Tehran.
