In recent days, multiple satellite photo providers have published pictures of the latest Iranian efforts to conceal the status of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to rebuild its nuclear program at Natanz, Isfahan, and Parchin-Taleghan 2.
These developments come as US President Donald Trump has been weighing a major strike against Iran on a day-to-day basis.
Parchin-Taleghan 2, just south of Tehran, previously served as a nuclear weapons group site relating to explosives testing during the era of Project AMAD (1989-2003).
Prior to the Israel-Iran War of June 2025, Natanz was Iran’s largest site for enriching uranium, containing the vast majority of its centrifuges, situated about 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of the capital.
It was a mix of above- and below-ground facilities.
Before June 2025, Isfahan was the site of a series of Iranian above- and below-ground nuclear weaponization projects, including producing uranium metal. It was also known for producing the uranium gas that would be fed into centrifuges as part of the enrichment process at Natanz, and another nuclear facility at Fordow.
It is located around 350 kilometers (215 miles) south of Tehran.
Besides the June 2025 attack, Israel also struck around 20 Iranian targets in October 2024 in retaliation for a massive ballistic missile attack.
Following the October 2024 attack, a report by the Institute for Science and International Security (the “good” ISIS) published by its president, David Albright, said satellite photos showed that the Islamic Republic had started new construction at Taleghan-2, including a roof to conceal its activities.
This rebuilding continued after the wider June 2025 Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
More recently, Tehran started constructing roofs to conceal developments at some of the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities as well.
Satellite photos from the institute and from Planet Labs PBC (first published by the Associated Press) show additional construction as recently as late January, even as the situation has heated up regarding a potential US strike on Iran.
Photos have also shown various openings to Isfahan’s underground facilities being covered or otherwise filled up, with nuclear experts suggesting that these are moves to protect nuclear assets below ground from a potential future American strike.
Iran undertook similar measures prior to Israel’s June 2025 strikes.
ANALYSTS DON’T know what activities Iran is undertaking beneath the new roofs, but speculation is that Tehran is not trying to move nuclear assets out to other areas, but rather possibly moving them around within those areas or bringing assets from other locations to these better protected underground areas.
Some of the facilities look similar to those at the Karaj nuclear site that had been used to produce parts for the nuclear enrichment process.
“The roof construction could mean that assets survived that Iran wanted to recover without overhead observation, or it could mean that Iran considers the structure worth retaining.” Albright wrote in one report.
“In the case of reconstruction activities inside the buildings, the roof may serve a dual purpose of shielding construction from the weather and from prying eyes,” he said.
Iran possesses large amount of 60% enriched uranium
Iran already has around 400 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium, so analysts have speculated that its next priority is to reestablish even a small centrifuge enrichment fleet that could be used to weaponize some of it.
“If this area was fully or largely dedicated to centrifuge manufacturing,” Albright stated in a report about the new construction, “the activity at this site, in combination with activities as the Esfahan mountain complex and the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz, would indicate that Iran has placed a priority on recovering and preserving assets related to uranium enrichment rather than uranium conversion.”
Experts have said that a much smaller number of centrifuges than Iran’s prior immense fleet of 20,000 machines would be sufficient to weaponize their existing 60% uranium.
In mid-January, IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi said that at some point, possibly as early as Spring 2026, if Iran did not report on the location of its 60%-enriched uranium, he would need to declare the country non-compliant with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the only nuclear deal that Tehran has not quit to date.
At the same time, IDF sources do not believe that the Islamic Republic has made any serious efforts to start the re-enrichment process, being concerned about how deeply its apparatus was penetrated by Israeli intelligence in June 2025.
Isfahan was struck by Israel in June 2025 at seven different locations, and by the US at three, while Natanz was also hit several times by the two countries.