Amid shaky truce, where is Iran’s enriched uranium enough to make 10 nuclear bombs?

It’s been a head-spinning few hours — US President Donald Trump announced a “total and complete” ceasefire between Israel and Iran, declaring that the ‘12-day war’ has now ended.

But amid the many swirling questions, there’s one that many are asking but no one seems to have the answer to: where is Iran’s sensitive stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 per cent — a short step from the 90 per cent required for a nuclear weapon?

The question came into being after the US carried out strikes at three nuclear plants in Iran, with the US president saying that the facilities were “completely and totally obliterated” by American bunker-busting bombs and a barrage of missiles.

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. @POTUS “A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime...

Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s number… pic.twitter.com/GNLmV0gfXw

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) June 22, 2025

How much enriched uranium does Iran have?

Before we dive deep into the whereabouts of Iran’s enriched uranium , let’s understand what it is. To “enrich” uranium means taking the naturally found element and increasing the proportion of uranium-235 while removing uranium-238. To build a nuclear weapon, uranium must be enriched to about 90 per cent U-235.

According to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) last report in May, Iran had amassed 408.6 kg of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent, a significant increase from the 133.8 kgs reported in February.

US officials note that 400 kg of enriched uranium is sufficient to make up to 10 nuclear weapons.

Did Iran move its enriched uranium before US strikes?

However, it seems that Iran may have outmanoeuvred the US by moving its stockpile of enriched uranium before the American military carried out its strikes on Iran’s Fordow , Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities.

Attuned to Trump’s constant threats, it appears that the Iranian regime secretly took the stockpile to hidden locations, where advanced centrifuges had been covertly set up. In fact, Sima Shine, a former Iran specialist at Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, told the Financial Times that she was convinced Iran had moved enriched material. “They have enough enriched uranium somewhere, and they took some advanced centrifuges somewhere, in order to enable them to some day go to a nuclear device,” Shine said. “The programme is not destroyed completely, no matter what the Americans say.”

Two other Israeli officials also agree that evidence suggests that Iran moved their uranium stockpile before the US strikes. Moreover, satellite images from two days before the attack showed earth movers and dump trucks lined outside the nuclear plant. According to analysts at TS2 Space, a Polish defence firm, this was a frantic effort to move centrifuges or shielding materials.

Another analysis by the Open Source Centre in London suggested that visuals show that Iran may have been preparing the site for a strike. However, it is unclear exactly what, if anything, was removed from the facility.

Speaking on the enriched uranium, IAEA head Rafael Grossi said his team last saw the uranium a week before the strikes, adding that Tehran had made efforts to protect the material.

Kelsey Davenport, an expert with the Arms Control Association, later noted to AFP, “It will be difficult if not impossible to track down all of Iran’s 60 per cent enriched uranium, stored in small canisters that are easily transportable by car.”

What do US officials say?

While US President Trump has asserted the Iranian nuclear sites were “totally destroyed ”, his officials were unable to provide details or evidence on Iran’s missing stockpile.

US Vice President JD Vance acknowledged that the enriched uranium may still be in Iranian hands. “We are going to work in the coming weeks to ensure that we do something with that fuel, and that’s one of the things that we’re going to have conversations with the Iranians about,” Vance said on ABC’s This Week.

He, however, noted that Iran’s ability to turn the fuel into a bomb or weapon had been significantly disrupted due to the destruction of critical equipment.

Even Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine said that the American strikes had caused “severe damage and destruction.”

However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quoted as telling CBS News, “No one will know for sure for days” whether Iran attempted or was able to move highly enriched uranium.

“I doubt they moved it because you really can’t move anything right now,” he told CBS. “The minute a truck starts driving somewhere, the Israelis have seen it, and they’ve targeted it and taken it out.”

What does this mean for Tehran’s nuclear ambitions?

Does this mean that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are still alive and they can build a bomb? With the high probability that Iran has moved its stockpile of enriched uranium elsewhere, there are chances that the nation could build a nuclear weapon.

However, Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence analyst, told The Telegraph that even if Iran had moved its uranium, it would be “like having fuel without a car”, adding: “They have the uranium, but they can’t do a lot with it unless they have built something we don’t know about on a small scale.”

Other experts also note that they can’t confirm without having knowledge about Iran’s centrifuges — the machines used to enrich uranium. As of now, it is reported that the US and Israel strikes destroyed many of the centrifuges at Natanz.

But, as Davenport told AFP, “With 60 per cent enriched uranium and a few hundred advanced centrifuges, Iran still has the capability to weaponise.”

Richard Nephew, a former senior US official who worked on Iran in the Obama and Biden administrations, explained it best: “It comes down to the material and where it is. On the basis of what we’ve seen at this point, we don’t know where the material is. We don’t have any real confidence that we’ve got the ability to get it any time soon,” he told the Financial Times.

With inputs from agencies