Trump Threatens Strike on Iran's 100-Meter-Deep Pickaxe Site as Intel Points to Thousands of Centrifuges
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 27
Trump Threatens Strike on Iran's 100-Meter-Deep Pickaxe Site as Intel Points to Thousands of Centrifuges
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 27
Summary
Trump said the United States could hit Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain facility “pretty soon” and “very heavily,” escalating focus on a nuclear site left untouched in earlier U.S. strikes.
Israeli intelligence, reported by The Wall Street Journal, says Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into Pickaxe last fall; Trump said that transfer “may have” happened, but the U.S. does not have it “on record.”
At least 100 meters under rock near Natanz, Pickaxe is still seen by outside analysts as under construction, with no confirmed evidence it is operating as an enrichment plant or holding enriched uranium.
440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% had been verified by the IAEA before the June 2025 attacks—enough, if further enriched, for about 10 weapons—but inspectors have since lost track of its amount and location.
Military experts split on whether airstrikes could destroy Pickaxe’s interior or only collapse entrances, meaning any attack might delay Iran’s rebuilding more than eliminate its broader nuclear program.