Why Iran’s uranium should be left buried underground
By Oded Ailam
web posted March 23, 2026
The scene practically writes itself: silent “Yasur” helicopters slicing through the desert night sky above Isfahan. Fighters from Sayeret Matkal and Delta Force, faces painted and focused on their mission, rappel down ropes into a gaping hole in the ground. After a short and photogenic firefight with the Revolutionary Guards, they emerge from the depths carrying gleaming metal cases filled with enriched uranium. Dramatic music swells, the aircraft lift toward the horizon, and the world is saved.
Sounds good? Absolutely. Realistic? About as much as Iran establishing a liberal democracy tomorrow morning.
In the real world, extracting enriched uranium is not an action scene. It is an engineering, logistical, and chemical nightmare that makes even the most complex operations in history look like a school field trip. While the headlines talk about “bombing the nuclear program,” the real question is what happens the day after, when hundreds of kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% are buried under hundreds of tons of reinforced concrete and granite rock?
The First Problem: Engineering Under Fire
The Hollywood fantasy runs into a wall, literally. Following the massive strikes of 2025 and 2026, the nuclear facilities in Isfahan are no longer “production halls.” They are “concrete tombs.” The uranium is stored dozens of meters underground in areas designed to survive bunker-busting bombs. When the ceiling collapses, it does not leave a convenient corridor for fighters. It creates a tangled mass of reinforced concrete fragments and steel that requires heavy excavation equipment.
To reach the uranium, the forces would not only need M4 rifles. They would need a convoy of hydraulic excavators, diamond drills, and engineering teams working for weeks. An operation like this in the middle of hostile territory is tactically impossible. Every minute of crane work would be a flashing red signal to intelligence satellites, including Chinese and Russian ones, turning the excavation site into a lethal trap for the rescue force.
The Technical Obstacle: Transporting “Toxic Cargo”
Even if we assume the force somehow reaches the “vault,” the real problem begins. Iranian uranium is usually stored as gas (UF6) inside massive, heavy cylinders. These are not light suitcases. Each standard B30 cylinder together with the required “Overpack,” the protective casing designed to prevent leakage and radiation exposure, weighs between five and ten tons.
From a physical standpoint, these containers cannot be lifted in a basket by a standard assault helicopter. Extremely heavy transport helicopters would be required, such as the CH-53K, which would have to hover above the site for an extended period while the cargo is attached. In addition, even a few minutes of exposure to a damaged cylinder without heavy shielding, layers of lead and concrete, would be a death sentence for the force. The uranium itself may emit limited radiation, but if the structure has been compromised the air would be filled with radioactive particles and corrosive gases. The fighters would need to wear sealed and cumbersome protective suits, raising internal body temperature to dangerous levels within minutes and turning every operational movement into slow, exhausting crawling.
The Quiet Military Option: “Poisoning the Stockpile”
If the uranium cannot be removed, perhaps it is better simply to “kill” it. Here a far more elegant and sophisticated alternative comes into play than physical extraction: chemical poisoning.
Instead of sending battalions with shovels, small covert teams could conduct precise deep drilling. Through these boreholes, substances such as boron (Boron) or gadolinium (Gadolinium) could be injected directly into the storage cavities. These materials are neutron absorbers. They act as poison for a nuclear reaction.
Once the enriched uranium physically mixes with these “poisons,” it becomes useless as a weapon. To make it usable again as nuclear material, the Iranians would have to build an advanced chemical separation facility from scratch, a process that would require years of work under the watchful eye of Western intelligence. This is a way to neutralize the bomb without moving it a single centimeter.
The Agreed Burial: The Diplomatic Solution
In any future agreement concerning “the day after,” whether with the current regime or whoever replaces it, the West should not aim to remove the uranium. It should ensure that it remains buried. The correct strategy is “sealing and monitoring.”
- Boron-infused concrete pouring
Filling the storage shaft with special concrete containing radiation-absorbing materials, making any future extraction an almost impossible operation. - Remote monitoring
Embedding seismic and thermal sensors within the concrete that transmit in real time to satellites. Any attempt at drilling or excavation would immediately trigger an alert at CENTCOM and Israeli command centers. - Deterring the D9
It is much easier to bomb a bulldozer attempting to dig than to try to steal the uranium ourselves.
Eyes In the Sky: Why Deception Is Impossible
The reason it is relatively easy to ensure the uranium remains buried is intelligence visibility. By 2026, the ability of satellites to track logistical signatures is phenomenal. Extracting uranium would require:
- Thermal signature: operating heavy engines and drills generates heat that is easily detected by IR satellites.
• Physical signature: moving tons of soil creates ground elevation changes measurable at the millimeter level using SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar).
• Chemical signature: sensitive sensors, electronic noses, placed near the site can detect even single molecules of UF6 gas released into the air during an extraction attempt.
Conclusion: The Power of Concrete
Paradoxically, the fact that the uranium is buried deep underground beneath thousands of tons of rubble is currently the best safety net. Iran’s scientific and technological capabilities have been severely damaged, and the “weapons group,” the people who know how to turn the material into a bomb, is scattered or deterred.
Right now, the uranium is not a ticking bomb. It is more like an expensive grand piano buried on level minus four of a collapsed building. It may be a strategic asset, but no one will be playing it anytime soon.
The real victory does not lie in a heroic extraction. It lies in understanding that sometimes the demons need to remain buried deep underground, beneath layers of concrete, chemical poison, and a watchful eye from space.
Oded Ailam is a former head of the Counterterrorism Division in the Mossad and is currently a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).
