Israel targets unfinished Arak heavy water reactor in Iran
On the seventh day of ongoing hostilities between the two nations, Israeli jets targeted and bombed a nuclear reactor under construction in central Iran as part of a series of airstrikes.
The Israeli military said it targeted the Arak heavy water reactor's core seal to stop it being used for "nuclear weapons development", News.Az reports citing BBC.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the reactor was hit and that it contained no nuclear material.
Spent fuel from heavy water reactors contains plutonium suitable for a nuclear bomb.
Iran - which says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful - agreed under a 2015 deal with world powers to redesign and rebuild Arak so it could not produce weapons-grade plutonium.
The following year, the IAEA said Iran had removed Arak's calandria, or reactor core, and rendered it "inoperable".
The global nuclear watchdog's latest quarterly report from late May said minor civil construction work was ongoing at the reactor, and that Iran expected it to be commissioned this year and to start operating in 2026.
The Israeli military said Iran's government had "deliberately ordered [workers] not to complete the conversion... in order to exert pressure on the West".
"The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development," it added.
Black-and-white aerial footage of the attack released by the military appeared to show a bomb hitting the domed roof of the reactor building and several large explosions from Arak, which about 250km (155 miles) south-west of Tehran and is also known as Khondab.
Daytime video broadcast by Iranian state TV showed two large plumes of white smoke rising from the facility. It also cited Iranian officials as saying that the site had been "secured in advance" and that there was "no contamination resulting from the attack".
Satellite imagery showed a large hole in the reactor building's roof.
Also visible were what analysts identified as destroyed distillation towers belonging to the adjacent heavy water production plant. The IAEA said it had no information indicating that the heavy water plant was hit.
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