The images, taken by Maxar Technologies, and analyzed by private Israeli intelligence outfit The Intel Lab and the Washington DC-based Institute for Science and International Security, show trucks and earthworks taking place at Sanjarian, a small town outside of Tehran.
The images, first reported by Fox News, show 18 vehicles at the site on October 15, 2020, as well as excavations and more vehicles in January.
The site was covered up in March, and all that is currently visible are trenches and excavation swirls.
According to the institute, also known as ISIS, the nuclear archive smuggled out of Iran by Israel’s Mossad spy agency in 2018 contained information about Sanjarian’s role in plans to produce shockwave generators, which are key components in the miniaturization of nuclear weapons.
It said the site was used as part of the Amad Plan — Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which Iran claims was halted in 2003 but which Israel says continued in secret — to conduct a high number of experiments with shockwave generators and exploding bridgewires, which are a component in the generators.
At one point, 136 tests were conducted within seven months in 2002-2003 in the site’s two blast chambers. The nuclear archive is said to have contained photos of the site from around that time. READ MORE
