Centrifuges at Fordo ‘No Longer Operational,’ U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Head Says

Centrifuges at the Fordo uranium enrichment plant in Iran are “no longer operational” after the United States attacked the facility with bunker-busting bombs, Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on French radio on Thursday.

Evaluating the damage from the strikes using satellite imagery alone is difficult, Mr. Grossi told Radio France Internationale in an interview.But given the power of the bombs and the technical characteristics of the plant, “we already know that these centrifuges are no longer operational,” he said.

Mr. Grossi added that centrifuges are machines that require a high-degree of precision and are vulnerable to intense vibrations.

“There was no escaping significant physical damage,” Mr. Grossi said. “So we can come to a fairly accurate technical conclusion.”

This is a developing story.