The IDF on Thursday said it had struck Iran's advanced explosives experiments nuclear facility at Parchin-Taleghan 2.
On February 2, multiple satellite photo providers put out pictures of the latest Iranian efforts to conceal the status of their nuclear program rebuilding efforts at Natanz, Isfahan, and Parchin-Taleghan 2.
Parchin-Taleghan 2 had previously served as an AMAD-era nuclear weapons group site relating to explosives testing and is just south of Tehran.
On March 8, despite doubts about recent Israeli military claims of having destroyed a secret nuclear site, which was critical and potentially dangerous for future Islamic regime plans to develop a nuclear weapon, The Jerusalem Post exclusively confirmed with Israeli sources the severity of the site.
On March 3, IDF Chief Spokesman Brig, Gen. Efi Deffrin revealed in a press conference that the air force had destroyed a secret Iranian nuclear weapons development site.
Deffrin says site was related to weapons group developments
Naming the site as Min Zadai, on the northeast outskirts of Tehran, Deffrin said that the site was related to weapons group developments.
He said that IDF intelligence followed nuclear scientists who tried to travel there clandestinely.
From following these scientists, he said that the IDF was able to learn about the dangerous nature of these activities, for helping Tehran potentially start to rehabilitate aspects of weapons development for a nuclear bomb.
Most of the global media attention focuses on uranium enrichment since that is the hardest issue to conquer and can take many years to master.
But without a number of weapons components being developed, enriched uranium can not be delivered as a weapon.
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 around 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of the capital.
It was a mix of above and below-ground facilities.
Before June 2025, Isfahan was a series of Iranian above and below-ground nuclear sites for weaponization, including producing uranium metal, and also known for producing the uranium gas which 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 June 2025, Israel also struck around 20 targets in Iran in October 2024 in retaliation for a massive ballistic missile attack.
Following the October 2024 attack, an Institute for Science and International Security (the "good" ISIS) report published by its President, David Albright, said that 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, leading to the IDF's attack on Thursday.
More recently, Tehran had started constructing roofs to conceal developments at some of the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities as well.
Satellite photos from the good ISIS and from Planet Labs PBC (first published by the Associated Press) show additional construction even in late January, even as the situation has heated up about 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 did not 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 possibly moving assets around within those areas or bringing assets from other locations to those better protected underground areas.
Some of the facilities look similar to facilities at the Karaj nuclear site, which had been used to produce parts for the nuclear enrichment process.
In one report, Albright wrote, "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."
"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," added Albright.
Iran already has around 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium, so analysts have speculated its next priority is to reestablish even a small centrifuge enrichment fleet, which could be used to weaponize some of that uranium.
Albright stated in a report about the new construction, "If this area was fully or largely dedicated to centrifuge manufacturing, 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 20,000 fleet of machines would be sufficient to weaponize uranium, which is already up to 60%.