# Israel, and the USA as of June 21, 2025, strikes dozens of targets in Iran, including nuclear program **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** breaking-news\ **Created:** [June 13, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556 "2025-06-13T01:51:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 32
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/623 "2025-06-26T23:32:21Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > Right. There’s a slight difference in density for different isotopes, but it is negligible for the purposes of this discussion. And yet… .that slight difference is what enables them to enrich their uranium supply with a centrifuge… > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Much of what they have is a gas, not ingots of metal. Uranium hexaflouride only becomes a gas at 56C or 133F. At room temperature it’s actually a white solid. The downside of that is that humid air can cause it to decompose into uranyl flouride and hydrogen flouride, neither of which plays nice with human flesh (among other things). You’ll probably want to keep all of that stuff chill to avoid it vaporizing and causing other problems, but at least as either a solid or liquid it will be easier to keep in a container. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/624 "2025-06-26T23:57:25Z")
I did not know about the temperature or dissociation problems. Thank you. A nasty difficult job just got even harder. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/625 "2025-06-27T00:03:52Z")
Most chemistry involving fluorine is pretty nasty. I imagine the process of producing the UF6 is even nastier. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/626 "2025-06-27T00:10:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Most chemistry involving fluorine is pretty nasty. Reminds me of Derek Lowe’s blog, “Things I Won’t Work With”. He’s had a lot to say about fluorine. Here’s one: > The latest addition to the long list of chemicals that I never hope to encounter takes us back to the wonderful world of fluorine chemistry. I’m always struck by how much work has taken place in that field, how long ago some of it was first done, and how many violently hideous compounds have been carefully studied. > > \< snip \> > > And yes, what happens next is just what you think happens: you run a mixture of oxygen and fluorine through a 700-degree-heating block. “Oh, no you don’t,” is the common reaction of most chemists to that proposal, “. . .not unless I’m at least a mile away, two miles if I’m downwind.” This, folks, is the bracingly direct route to preparing dioxygen difluoride, often referred to in the literature by its evocative formula of FOOF. - [SOURCE](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-work-dioxygen-difluoride) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/627 "2025-06-27T01:08:11Z")
Axios with a really good article on the reports from Israeli intelligence that have been coming out. Obviously, a far more professional and cautious assessment than we got from Trump and his team. [https://www.axios.com/2025/06/25/iran-nuclear-program-israel-damage-intelligence](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/25/iran-nuclear-program-israel-damage-intelligence) > [@](#): > > The big picture: Israel, which initiated the war and faces a far more direct threat from Iran than the U.S., is largely satisfied with the early results from Trump’s military strike on Saturday. > > “A professional battle damage assessment takes time,” an Israeli official stressed, suggesting it was far too soon to draw the kinds of conclusions included in the DIA report. > “Israeli intelligence services haven’t arrived at any bottom lines for now,” the official added. “But we don’t think there was any bug in the operation, and we have no indications the bunker-buster bombs didn’t work. Nobody here is disappointed.” > [@](#): > > Behind the scenes: Israeli officials said the Iranian government has been engaged in its own battle damage assessment to determine the state of its nuclear program. > > An Israeli official with direct knowledge of intelligence on Iran told Axios that intercepted communications suggest Iranian military officials have been giving false situation reports to the country’s political leadership — downplaying the extent of the damage. > “The Iranians themselves still don’t even have a clear idea what happened to some of their nuclear facilities,” a second Israeli official said. > [@](#): > > Zoom in: Israeli officials said the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan — the three sites targeted in the U.S. strike on Saturday — is “very significant.” > > At Natanz, the above-ground enrichment facility was completely destroyed, and signs point to the collapse of its underground infrastructure, an Israeli official said. > At Fordow, the U.S. military’s 30,000-pound bunker-busters inflicted major damage on the facility — though Israeli officials say it remains unclear whether the underground areas suffered full structural collapse. > At Isfahan, Israeli officials said the uranium reprocessing facility — which produces the uranium metal used in bomb-making — was destroyed. Isfahan’s underground tunnels were also damaged, but the full scope is still being assessed. > “We doubt that these facilities can be activated any time in the near future,” an Israeli official said. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/628 "2025-06-27T01:17:17Z")
And FWIW, Rafael Grossi agrees that Iran’s program at Fordow was significantly damaged: > **[Centrifuges at Fordo ‘No Longer Operational,’ U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Head Says](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/world/middleeast/centrifuges-fordo-damage-iran.html)** > > Rafael Grossi told French radio that there was “no escaping significant physical damage” after Washington dropped bunker-buster bombs on the Iranian facility. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/629 "2025-06-27T01:39:58Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > And yet… .that slight difference is what enables them to enrich their uranium supply with a centrifuge… Yes, it’s critical to how we separate the different isotopes. But the difference in volume/mass is almost nothing, and for the discussion of spiriting away the material that’s what matters. In the end, you could literally take it away in a minivan, **+/- 50%** of the volume stated by @pulykamell ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/630 "2025-06-27T15:54:06Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Reminds me of Derek Lowe’s blog, “Things I Won’t Work With”. I love that series! As someone who has to work with safety training and rules in some fairly dangerous chemistry labs, I learned a lot. I also learned chemists didn’t used to live very long. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/631 "2025-06-27T16:02:30Z")
A thought: Is it possible that the truck activity outside of Fordow was actually moving material and/or equipment into the facility? All of their other facilities were getting hammered by Israel, and that’s the one place that Israel couldn’t touch. If they didn’t know Trump was about to get involved, it might make sense to put more stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/632 "2025-06-27T16:08:33Z")
That certainly makes some sense but Iran knows Fordo is on the target list. It may be resilient but still a target. Also, all your eggs in one basket. If they had 800 kilos of enriched uranium (give or take) and need 50 kilos for a bomb (give or take) better to scatter it all to 16 random locations. Even if some get destroyed they’d almost certainly still have some left. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/633 "2025-06-27T16:09:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A thought: Is it possible that the truck activity outside of Fordow was actually moving material and/or equipment into the facility? All of their other facilities were getting hammered by Israel, and that’s the one place that Israel couldn’t touch. If they didn’t know Trump was about to get involved, it might make sense to put more stuff there. I read a few reports about an intelligence assessment that suggested exactly that and even provided some intercepted communications as evidence, but given how perfectly that lines up with what I’d want to hear, I’m dismissing it as wishful thinking until more solid evidence arises. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/634 "2025-06-27T22:36:01Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > given how perfectly that lines up with what I’d want to hear, I’m dismissing it as wishful thinking until more solid evidence arises. Given the inherent uncertainty in things like this, that’s the safest approach to take in any breaking news event. If nothing else, it could easily be deliberate misinformation ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/635 "2025-07-17T11:35:49Z")
And the bombings accomplished very little, it appears: > **[New U.S. assessment finds American strikes destroyed only one of three...](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/new-us-assessment-finds-american-strikes-destroyed-only-one-three-iran-rcna218761)** > > President Donald Trump rejected a military plan for more comprehensive strikes on Iran’s nuclear program that would have lasted weeks, NBC News has also learned. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/636 "2025-07-17T16:02:39Z")
If taking out top commanders and scientists and a significant amount of their air defenses and one third of their nuke sites is very little ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/637 "2025-07-17T16:21:10Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > If taking out top commanders and scientists and a significant amount of their air defenses and one third of their nuke sites is very little. Not to mention the destruction of most of their rocket launchers capable of hitting Israel, as well as their capacity to produce more. Also, according to the link provided, Fordow - the one site that Israel actually needed help with - is the one where significant damage was done by the US strike specifically. It’s also the site where the big bunker busters were dropped, so that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/638 "2025-07-17T16:32:24Z")
I think the last two posters are conflating all the stuff the Israelis have accomplished with the small stuff the USA has accomplished with their one raid. I’m not here to argue the merits of either. But they are distinct. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/639 "2025-07-17T16:42:02Z")
Right. The US bombings appear to have done very little other than involving us in a conflict we hadn’t yet been involved in. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/640 "2025-07-17T16:57:09Z")
That’s a fair point and I stand corrected. I still disagree that destroying the one site that was targeted is “very little”. And we were already involved in the conflict. It’s not like we made a new enemy. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/641 "2025-07-17T17:19:19Z")
I thought it was known at the time that we didn’t even try to go after the tunnels under Natanz and Isfahan. Seems like the 3 revelations in the article are: -US officials do believe that the strikes on Fordow did actually destroy it. -A lot of the enriched uranium was at Isfahan, so it should still be there (maybe this was already known) -Apparently there actually was a plan to take out all of the tunnels including an additional 3 sites, but Trump didn’t go for it. Article is a bit murky but I guess the idea was to just spend days dropping bunker busters over and over again until you get deep enough. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556/642 "2025-07-17T17:30:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I think the last two posters are conflating all the stuff the Israelis have accomplished with the small stuff the USA has accomplished with their one raid There was exactly one site that Israel publically identified as top tough a nut to crack and asked America for help with. According to this article, the American strike destroyed that site. I fail to see how that’s “small stuff”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-and-the-usa-as-of-june-21-2025-strikes-dozens-of-targets-in-iran-including-nuclear-program/1019556.md?page=33)