IRAN NUKESTaleghan 2: Pre- and Post Strike Assessment
On October 25, 2024, Israel launched an attack on Iran that destroyed multiple buildings within the Parchin Military Complex. One target stood out–a building used for nuclear weapons development purposes under Iran’s Amad Plan in the early 2000s.
On October 25, 2024, Israel launched an attack on Iran that destroyed multiple buildings within the Parchin Military Complex. Three out of four attacked buildings were directly associated with solid rocket motor propellant mixing for ballistic missile production. However, one target stood out–a building used for nuclear weapons development purposes under Iran’s Amad Plan in the early 2000s. Named after the high explosive test chamber the building housed, it was labeled “Taleghan 2” in many documents in the Israeli captured Iran Nuclear Archive. Although available evidence supports that the high explosive chamber and associated flash x-ray were removed from the building during a multi-year Iranian sanitization of the site, which also included the co-located Taleghan 1 building, Israel indicated that Taleghan 2 had in the last few years a nuclear weapons connection. Moreover, after the strike, Axios reported that the site was “active” recently and contained nuclear weapons related equipment at the time of the strike. Subsequently, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu stated about the strike: “It’s not a secret - it’s published. There is a certain element of their nuclear program that was damaged in this attack. But still the program itself, its ability to operate here, has not yet been thwarted.”
Findings
· High resolution satellite imagery shows that the Taleghan 2 building was thoroughly destroyed in the strikes (see Figure 1).
· According to an Israeli government source, Taleghan 2 was attacked for multiple reasons, and sending a message was one of them.
· The Institute was able to confirm with a Western government that there is evidence that nuclear weapons related activities recently took place at Taleghan 2.
· The exact type of nuclear weapons related activities recently taking place at Taleghan 2 requires further clarification.
· Based on Axios reporting and the Institute’s understanding, it appears likely that Taleghan 2 contained equipment to make high purity PETN plastic explosives. These explosives, which are moldable, were used during the Amad Plan in the channels of the shock wave generators, a type of multipoint initiation system used to detonate the main high explosive charge in a nuclear weapon.
