Uranium fever: Where is Iran’s stockpile and who could get it?

The fate of the Iranian nuclear program and its highly enriched uranium inventory remain the key obstacles in negotiations with the US Washington and Tehran remain deadlocked over Iran’s nuclear program and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran has insisted that continuing its nuclear program is its sovereign right, while the US maintains that the program must be abandoned for good and the uranium surrendered. RT looks into the status of Iran’s uranium stockpile, as well as the positions of Tehran and Washington on the issue as the temporary ceasefire nears its end. How much uranium does Iran have? Iran has a sizable stockpile of fissile materials, including uranium enriched up to 60%. While the material is not yet weapons-grade, it could potentially be enriched to that level in a matter of days, depending on the equipment used. Tehran has long maintained its nuclear program serves purely civilian goals and rejected assertions it had been seeking to build nuclear weapons. According to the latest comprehensive assessment from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), published in May 2025, Tehran possessed more than 400 kg of uranium enriched up to 60%, as well as nearly 300 kg enriched up to 20%. Apart from that, the country was believed to hold some 5.5 tons of uranium enriched up to 5%, as well as some 2.2 tons up to 2%. Where exactly is the Iranian stockpile? The whereabouts and status of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile are debated, and no solid independent assessment of them is available. The IAEA said it had lost “continuity of knowledge” about the stash after Tehran turned off on-site cameras used to monitor its nuclear program in June 2022 in retaliation for what it called a “political” resolution adopted by the organization. In its May 2025 assessment, the organization admitted the knowledge gap was no longer bridgeable. Read more Trump weighing raid on Iran to ‘extract’ enriched uranium – WSJ According to US claims, Iran’s “nuclear dust,” as US President Donald Trump has described it, remains buried at the nuclear facilities bombed by the US in June 2025.

At the time, the US attacked sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, striking underground facilities with bunker buster bombs and Tomahawk missiles. While Trump claimed the key uranium-enrichment facilities ended up “completely and totally obliterated,” a July 2025 Pentagon assessment suggested the country’s nuclear program had only been set back by up to two years. Tehran has been elusive about the extent of damage and the fate of the fissile materials stockpile, stating only that the sites sustained severe damage. A recent report by Le Monde suggested that Iran could have transferred possibly all of its highly enriched uranium to the Isfahan underground facility shortly before the June 2025 strikes. The assessment is based on a satellite image taken on June 9, 2025, which shows a large flatbed truck packed with 18 blue containers, which experts believed to be consistent with caskets used to transport highly radioactive materials. The containers could hold up to 540kg of uranium, according to experts cited by the newspaper. After the strikes, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth insisted that no intelligence suggested Iran had moved any of its highly enriched uranium prior to the attacks. The polar positions of the US and Iran on the uranium The issue of the uranium has remained a key obstacles to an agreement between the US and Iran. Washington has demanded that Tehran surrender all of its highly enriched uranium, as well as dismantle its infrastructure and abandon the nuclear program for good. Read more US breach of trust led to collapse of talks – Iranian diplomat During the recent talks between Iran and the US in Islamabad, which concluded without any break