Latest news with #IranianScientists
Arab News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Israeli scientists reel after Iranian missile strikes premier research institute
REHOVOT, Israel: For years, Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran's nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it. Now, with Iran and Israel in an open-ended direct conflict, scientists in Israel have found themselves in the crosshairs after an Iranian missile struck a premier research institute known for its work in life sciences and physics, among other fields. While no one was killed in the strike on the Weizmann Institute of Science early Sunday, it caused heavy damage to multiple labs on campus, snuffing out years of scientific research and sending a chilling message to Israeli scientists that they and their expertise are now targets in the escalating conflict with Iran. 'It's a moral victory' for Iran, said Oren Schuldiner, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology and the department of molecular neuroscience whose lab was obliterated in the strike. 'They managed to harm the crown jewel of science in Israel.' Iranian scientists were a prime target in a long shadow war During years of a shadow war between Israel and Iran that preceded the current conflict, Israel repeatedly targeted Iranian nuclear scientists with the aim of setting back Iran's nuclear program. Israel continued that tactic with its initial blow against Iran days ago, killing multiple nuclear scientists, along with top generals, as well as striking nuclear facilities and ballistic missile infrastructure. For its part, Iran has been accused of targeting at least one Weizmann scientist before. Last year, Israeli authorities said they busted an Iranian spy ring that devised a plot to follow and assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist who worked and lived at the institute. Citing an indictment, Israeli media said the suspects, Palestinians from east Jerusalem, gathered information about the scientist and photographed the exterior of the Weizmann Institute but were arrested before they could proceed. With Iran's intelligence penetration into Israel far less successful than Israel's, those plots have not been seen through, making this week's strike on Weizmann that much more jarring. 'The Weizmann Institute has been in Iran's sights,' said Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. He stressed that he did not know for certain whether Iran intended to strike the institute but believed it did. While it is a multidisciplinary research institute, Weizmann, like other Israeli universities, has ties to Israel's defense establishment, including collaborations with industry leaders like Elbit Systems, which is why it may have been targeted. But Guzansky said the institute primarily symbolizes 'Israeli scientific progress' and the strike against it shows Iran's thinking: 'You harm our scientists, so we are also harming scientific cadre.' Damage to the institute and labs 'literally decimated' Weizmann, founded in 1934 and later renamed after Israel's first president, ranks among the world's top research institutes. Its scientists and researchers publish hundreds of studies each year. One Nobel laureate in chemistry and three Turing Award laureates have been associated with the institute, which built the first computer in Israel in 1954. Two buildings were hit in the strike, including one housing life sciences labs and a second that was empty and under construction but meant for chemistry study, according to the institute. Dozens of other buildings were damaged. The campus has been closed since the strike, although media were allowed to visit Thursday. Large piles of rock, twisted metal and other debris were strewn on campus. There were shattered windows, collapsed ceiling panels and charred walls. A photo shared on X by one professor showed flames rising near a heavily damaged structure with debris scattered on the ground nearby. 'Several buildings were hit quite hard, meaning that some labs were literally decimated, really leaving nothing,' said Sarel Fleishman, a professor of biochemics who said he has visited the site since the strike. Life's work of many researchers is gone Many of those labs focus on the life sciences, whose projects are especially sensitive to physical damage, Fleishman said. The labs were studying areas like tissue generation, developmental biology or cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely set back by the damage. 'This was the life's work of many people,' he said, noting that years' or even decades' worth of research was destroyed. For Schuldiner, the damage means the lab he has worked at for 16 years 'is entirely gone. No trace. There is nothing to save.' In that once gleaming lab, he kept thousands of genetically modified flies used for research into the development of the human nervous system, which helped provide insights into autism and schizophrenia, he said. The lab housed equipment like sophisticated microscopes. Researchers from Israel and abroad joined hands in the study effort. 'All of our studies have stopped,' he said, estimating it would take years to rebuild and get the science work back on track. 'It's very significant damage to the science that we can create and to the contribution we can make to the world.'
Associated Press
a day ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Israeli scientists reel after Iranian missile strikes premier research institute
REHOVOT, Israel (AP) — For years, Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran's nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it. Now, with Iran and Israel in an open-ended direct conflict, scientists in Israel have found themselves in the crosshairs after an Iranian missile struck a premier research institute known for its work in life sciences and physics, among other fields. While no one was killed in the strike on the Weizmann Institute of Science early Sunday, it caused heavy damage to multiple labs on campus, snuffing out years of scientific research and sending a chilling message to Israeli scientists that they and their expertise are now targets in the escalating conflict with Iran. 'It's a moral victory' for Iran, said Oren Schuldiner, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology and the department of molecular neuroscience whose lab was obliterated in the strike. 'They managed to harm the crown jewel of science in Israel.' Iranian scientists were a prime target in a long shadow war During years of a shadow war between Israel and Iran that preceded the current conflict, Israel repeatedly targeted Iranian nuclear scientists with the aim of setting back Iran's nuclear program. Israel continued that tactic with its initial blow against Iran days ago, killing multiple nuclear scientists, along with top generals, as well as striking nuclear facilities and ballistic missile infrastructure. For its part, Iran has been accused of targeting at least one Weizmann scientist before. Last year, Israeli authorities said they busted an Iranian spy ring that devised a plot to follow and assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist who worked and lived at the institute. Citing an indictment, Israeli media said the suspects, Palestinians from east Jerusalem, gathered information about the scientist and photographed the exterior of the Weizmann Institute but were arrested before they could proceed. With Iran's intelligence penetration into Israel far less successful than Israel's, those plots have not been seen through, making this week's strike on Weizmann that much more jarring. 'The Weizmann Institute has been in Iran's sights,' said Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. He stressed that he did not know for certain whether Iran intended to strike the institute but believed it did. While it is a multidisciplinary research institute, Weizmann, like other Israeli universities, has ties to Israel's defense establishment, including collaborations with industry leaders like Elbit Systems, which is why it may have been targeted. But Guzansky said the institute primarily symbolizes 'Israeli scientific progress' and the strike against it shows Iran's thinking: 'You harm our scientists, so we are also harming (your) scientific cadre.' Damage to the institute and labs 'literally decimated' Weizmann, founded in 1934 and later renamed after Israel's first president, ranks among the world's top research institutes. Its scientists and researchers publish hundreds of studies each year. One Nobel laureate in chemistry and three Turing Award laureates have been associated with the institute, which built the first computer in Israel in 1954. Two buildings were hit in the strike, including one housing life sciences labs and a second that was empty and under construction but meant for chemistry study, according to the institute. Dozens of other buildings were damaged. The campus has been closed since the strike, although media were allowed to visit Thursday. Large piles of rock, twisted metal and other debris were strewn on campus. There were shattered windows, collapsed ceiling panels and charred walls. A photo shared on X by one professor showed flames rising near a heavily damaged structure with debris scattered on the ground nearby. 'Several buildings were hit quite hard, meaning that some labs were literally decimated, really leaving nothing,' said Sarel Fleishman, a professor of biochemics who said he has visited the site since the strike. Life's work of many researchers is gone Many of those labs focus on the life sciences, whose projects are especially sensitive to physical damage, Fleishman said. The labs were studying areas like tissue generation, developmental biology or cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely set back by the damage. 'This was the life's work of many people,' he said, noting that years' or even decades' worth of research was destroyed. For Schuldiner, the damage means the lab he has worked at for 16 years 'is entirely gone. No trace. There is nothing to save.' In that once gleaming lab, he kept thousands of genetically modified flies used for research into the development of the human nervous system, which helped provide insights into autism and schizophrenia, he said. The lab housed equipment like sophisticated microscopes. Researchers from Israel and abroad joined hands in the study effort. 'All of our studies have stopped,' he said, estimating it would take years to rebuild and get the science work back on track. 'It's very significant damage to the science that we can create and to the contribution we can make to the world.' ___ Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. This story was submitted to Israel's military censor, which made no changes.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Here's what it means to enrich uranium – and why it raises concerns
Late last week, Israel targeted three of Iran 's key nuclear facilities – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – killing several Iranian nuclear scientists. The facilities are heavily fortified and largely underground, and there are conflicting reports of how much damage has been done. Natanz and Fordow are Iran's uranium enrichment sites, and Isfahan provides the raw materials, so any damage to these sites would limit Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons. But what exactly is uranium enrichment and why does it raise concerns? To understand what it means to 'enrich' uranium, you need to know a little about uranium isotopes and about splitting the atom in a nuclear fission reaction. All matter is made of atoms, which in turn are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. The number of protons is what gives atoms their chemical properties, setting apart the various chemical elements. Atoms have equal numbers of protons and electrons. Uranium has 92 protons, for example, while carbon has six. However, the same element can have different numbers of neutrons, forming versions of the element called isotopes. This hardly matters for chemical reactions, but their nuclear reactions can be wildly different. The difference between uranium-238 and uranium-235 When we dig uranium out of the ground, 99.27 per cent of it is uranium-238, which has 92 protons and 146 neutrons. Only 0.72 per cent of it is uranium-235 with 92 protons and 143 neutrons (the remaining 0.01 per cent are other isotopes). For nuclear power reactors or weapons, we need to change the isotope proportions. That's because of the two main uranium isotopes, onlyuranium-235 can support a fission chain reaction: one neutron causes an atom to fission, which produces energy and some more neutrons, causing more fission, and so on. This chain reaction releases a tremendous amount of energy. In a nuclear weapon, the goal is to have this chain reaction occur in a fraction of a second, producing a nuclear explosion. In a civilian nuclear power plant, the chain reaction is controlled. Nuclear power plants currently produce 9 per cent of the world's power. Another vital civilian use of nuclear reactions is for producing isotopes used in nuclear medicine for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. What is uranium enrichment, then? To 'enrich' uranium means taking the naturally found element and increasing the proportion of uranium-235 while removing uranium-238. There are a few ways to do this (including new inventions from Australia), but commercially, enrichment is currently done with a centrifuge. This is also the case in Iran's facilities. Centrifuges exploit the fact that uranium-238 is about 1 per cent heavier than uranium-235. They take uranium (in gas form) and use rotors to spin it at 50,000 to 70,000 rotations per minute, with the outer walls of the centrifuges moving at 400 to 500 metres per second. This works much like a salad spinner that throws water to the sides while the salad leaves stay in the centre. The heavier uranium-238 moves to the edges of the centrifuge, leaving the uranium-235 in the middle. This is only so effective, so the spinning process is done over and over again, building up the percentage of the uranium-235. Most civilian nuclear reactors use 'low enriched uranium' that's been enriched to between 3 per cent and 5 per cent. This means that 3–5 per cent of the total uranium in the sample is now uranium-235. That's enough to sustain a chain reaction and make electricity. What level of enrichment do nuclear weapons need? To get an explosive chain reaction, uranium-235 needs to be concentrated significantly more than the levels we use in nuclear reactors for making power or medicines. Technically, a nuclear weapon can be made with as little as 20 per cent uranium-235 (known as 'highly enriched uranium'), but the more the uranium is enriched, the smaller and lighter the weapon can be. Countries with nuclear weapons tend to use about 90 per cent enriched, 'weapons-grade' uranium. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has enriched large quantities of uranium to 60 per cent. It's actually easier to go from an enrichment of 60 per cent to 90 per cent than it is to get to that initial 60%. That's because there's less and less uranium-238 to get rid of. This is why Iran is considered to be at extreme risk of producing nuclear weapons, and why centrifuge technology for enrichment is kept secret. Ultimately, the exact same centrifuge technology that produces fuel for civilian reactors can be used to produce nuclear weapons. Inspectors from the IAEA monitor nuclear facilities worldwide to ensure countries are abiding by the rules set out in the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty. While Iran maintains it's only enriching uranium for 'peaceful purposes', late last week the IAEA board ruled Iran was in breach of its obligations under the treaty.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
What has Israel hit in Iran and how has Iran responded?
More than 200 Israeli jets were involved in initial air raids on Friday on at least 100 targets in Iran in five waves of strikes, including at the key Natanz nuclear site as well as at ballistic missile sites. Israel also killed at least nine senior Iranian nuclear scientists and a number of officials, including Iran's most senior military officer and the head of the Revolutionary Guards. Scores of sites appear to have been attacked in the widening campaign, including in Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz, and reportedly in Isfahan and Kermanshah. Strikes at the Natanz nuclear site, Iran's most significant nuclear enrichment facility, about 135 miles (220km) south-east of Tehran, began at just after 4am local time (0130 BST) on Friday. Video footage posted online appeared to show the aftermath of explosions. Protected by heavy concrete walls, Natanz's centrifuge facilities are underground and the site has been targeted with sabotage operations at multiple locations. Construction work had been under way to expand the site. Natanz is where Iran has produced much of its nuclear fuel – including a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that the west has suggested could be used in a future nuclear weapon. Satellite imagery showed significant damage to two areas of the site: the electrical substation that powers it, and the above-ground pilot fuel enrichment plant, which hosts hundreds of centrifuges. The fuel enrichment plant, which is equipped with about 15,000 centrifuges, appeared to be undamaged. The IAEA said there had been no reported nuclear contamination. As the Israeli offensive entered its second day, reports suggested that Israel had hit the area of the nuclear fuel enrichment facility at Fordow, which is deep underneath a mountain, causing limited damage. Israel is not believed to have the type of earth-penetrating bombs required to blow up the mountain and crack open the nuclear facility inside. A nuclear research centre in Isfahan was also hit. Reports suggested Bid Kaneh, which houses several missile development and production sites, was hit on Friday morning as well as the air defence systems in western Iran. Iran has confirmed a number of senior military figures and scientists were assassinated, some in strikes on private residences. Iran has also accused Israel of hitting civilian areas during its assassination attempts, including a claim that 60 people were killed in a strike on a residential building in the Farahzad area of Tehran. Israel's military said on Saturday it had targeted surface-to-surface missile launchers used to strike Israel and surface-to-air missile infrastructure used to defend Tehran. Among those killed were the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Gen Hossein Salami, suggesting a broader 'decapitation' strike aimed at weakening the Iranian regime. On Saturday morning, strikes were reported at Parchin military base and a jet fighter hangar at Mehrabad airport. On Sunday, Israel's military said it had hit 'more than 80' targets in Tehran, including Iran's defence ministry headquarters, 'nuclear weapons project' infrastructure sites, and other targets, including fuel tankers. The Iranian oil ministry said Israel had targeted two fuel depots in the Tehran area, including a depot at Shahran, in the capital's north-west, where large fireballs erupted. Later on Sunday, Israel's military said its air force had hit Mashhad airport in north-east Iran, in the longest-range strike of the conflict. Israel's strikes have killed at least 406 people in Iran and wounded another 654, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency, a Washington-based rights group that has long tracked Iran. The government in Tehran has not offered overall casualty figures. Both officers were closely associated with the centres of power in Iran's security hierarchy, having risen through the ranks after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Salami began his career in the IRGC in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq war, becoming deputy commander in 2009, then, a decade later, commander of the 125,000-strong force that has played a key role in Iran's forward foreign policy in the region. Salami had been subject to sanctions by the UN and US for his involvement in Iran's nuclear and military programmes. Bagheri, who was in his early 60s, had also risen through the IRGC, fighting in the Iran-Iraq war like Salami, with a background in military intelligence before being appointed chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran – the country's highest military position – in 2016. His position made him, formally at least, the second most powerful figure in Iran after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Gholamali Rashid, the deputy commander in chief of the armed forces, was also reported to have been killed. It was reported that Ali Shamkhani, a key adviser to and confidant of Khamenei, was killed in a strike on an apartment block in Tehran, as well as the head of the IRGC's air force and a number of his senior aides. Israel has a history of targeting Iranian nuclear scientists, and this attack was no exception, with at least six scientists killed on Friday and three more on Saturday. The Tasnim news agency named the six scientists killed on Friday, including Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, a theoretical physicist who was the president of the Islamic Azad University of Iran. Also killed was Fereydoun Abbasi, a former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. Tasnim additionally named Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi, Motalleblizadeh, as other scientists killed. Iranian state television named the three killed on Saturday as Ali Bakaei Karimi, Mansour Asgari, and Saeed Borji. Iran has launched a barrage of missiles at Israel, setting off air-raid sirens in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Israeli authorities said on Sunday that 14 people had been killed there since Friday and 390 injured. These maps show the locations of strikes in both countries since Saturday night. In northern Israel, rescuers and medics said a strike late on Saturday destroyed a three-storey building in the town of Tamra, killing four women. Israeli police said six people were killed and at least 180 injured at the site of a missile strike in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv on Israel's Mediterranean coast, in the early hours of Sunday morning. A strike on the central city of Rehovot injured 42 people.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The mountain fortress Israel must destroy to topple Iran's nuclear programme
The events of the past few days appear to have proved that Israel has near-total air superiority over Iran. Iranian armed forces have been powerless to counter the Israeli airstrikes that have destroyed critical buildings and wiped out swathes of the Islamic Republic's military leadership. At least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists have also been killed by the unilateral operation, codenamed Rising Lion, which appears aimed at decapitating the country's nuclear programme. One key site remains unscathed, however: the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. Located 20 miles from the ancient, central city of Qom, and about 100 miles south of Tehran, Fordow is one of two nuclear enrichment sites in the country. The other, in Natanz, was reportedly partially destroyed in the attacks. Hidden in the mountains, its key buildings buried deep underground, Fordow is an altogether more challenging target. Ringed by anti-air defences, it has become a symbol of Iranian defiance as well as its technological ingenuity. If Israel is truly to dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities, it must disable Fordow. That's because here, uranium is enriched in centrifuges at up to 60 per cent, a shade under the purity needed to build a nuclear weapon. 'The entire operation… really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow,' the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters on Friday. A day later, Iranian sources reported that Fordow had been attacked, but with limited damage. 'The be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation' Analysts have described the mountainous fortress, which sits within an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base, as 'the be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation'. 'If you don't get Fordow,' said Brett McGurk, who has worked as Middle East coordinator for several American presidents, 'you haven't eliminated their ability to produce weapons-grade material.' The problem for Israel is that it seems to lack the weapons to do the job. It is thought that Fordow's heavily fortified facilities could only be destroyed with so-called 'bunker busters', enormous bombs designed especially to penetrate buildings below ground. Israel is not believed to have such munitions, nor the heavy bombers needed to deliver them. The US, its key ally, has both positioned within striking distance of Iran. But Washington has been clear about its intent not to get directly involved in the current conflict. The result is what Peter Wildeford, a respected commentator and forecaster, calls 'The Fordow Paradox'. In an article on Saturday he wrote: 'The US possesses the military capability to destroy Fordow but lacks the political will, while Israel has the will but not the capability.' 'This fundamental misalignment between America's power and Israel's urgency explains why we're watching not just another round of strikes, but potentially the first act in nuclear proliferation's next wave.' Israel will keep looking for ways to destroy Fordow, in other words, while Iran will keep enriching uranium. 'Inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear programme' The Islamic Republic, which has long denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons, began enriching uranium at Fordow in September 2011. The site's existence had been revealed two years earlier, when declassified British, French and US intelligence reports detailed a secret facility 'inconsistent with a peaceful [nuclear] programme.' The news was so shocking that it provoked censure from China and Russia, which usually support Iran, and meant Fordow became a central point of focus in attempts to curtail the country's nuclear programme. At first, Iranian officials said the Islamic Republic would enrich uranium to 20 per cent purity for medical purposes. (The silvery-grey, radioactive metal is a critical component in the making of isotopes used in imaging and radiotherapy.) Under the terms of the landmark JCPOA nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama in 2015, Fordow was to stop enriching uranium for 15 years and Tehran agreed to keep its level of uranium enrichment more widely at 3.67 per cent – a level considered suitable for civilian nuclear power and research purposes, but not nuclear weapons – in return for sanctions relief. By 2018, however, and the US's withdrawal from the JCPOA at Donald Trump's direction, the facility was reported to be producing enriched uranium once again. In March 2023, the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed reports that 83.7 per cent, near weapons-grade U-235, had been found at Fordow. Last week, in its latest quarterly report, the IAEA said that Iran had produced enough 60 per cent purity uranium – capable of being further enriched in a matter of days to 90 per cent weapons grade material – to potentially manufacture nine nuclear bombs. It was a 'matter of serious concern', it concluded. The rise of the bunker buster Evidently, Israeli leaders agreed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Operation Rising Lion is aimed at rolling back 'the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival', adding the operation will 'continue for as many days as it takes to remove the spread'. Meanwhile, satellite images have shown extensive damage to the nuclear facilities at Natanz and another site, Isfahan. The IAEA confirmed that critical buildings at the latter facility had been damaged. Experts believe Israel could have used bunker-busting munitions in these attacks, albeit smaller ones than those which would be needed for a meaningful strike on Fordow. Justin Bronk, of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the BBC that the pattern of explosions 'would fit with penetrating bombs being used', such as 'GBU-31(V)3s or even possibly more specialised penetrating GBU-28s'. Modern bunker busters were developed after the first Gulf War in 1990, when coalition forces came across Iraqi fortifications too strong and deeply buried for conventional munitions to damage them. The new weapons had a heavily hardened nose, initially made from an artillery barrel, and a delayed fuse, meaning they would not explode until after they had penetrated their target, rather than on initial impact. While the bombs the Israelis already possess are effective through up to six metres of reinforced concrete, the American GBU-57A/B is thought to be the only munition that could deal a serious blow to Fordow. Also known as MOP, or Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the GBU-57 is more than six metres long and weighs 14,000kg, with a 2,400kg warhead and a GPS guidance system. It can reportedly penetrate through up to 61 metres of concrete. The only plane capable of delivering it is the B-2 stealth bomber, which can carry two at a time. Another plant even more deeply fortified is under construction Still, Israel has other methods at its disposal. Some have suggested that conventional munitions, if repeatedly dropped on the same target, might be able to damage Fordow. Or it could use special forces on the ground to try to destroy the facility from inside. In April 2021, Israeli reports claimed Mossad was involved in an explosion that caused a blackout at the Natanz facility. In 2010, the Stuxnet cyber virus damaged several nuclear centrifuges. Such operations are risky, however, especially now that Iran will be on its highest alert. And even were they to successfully target Fordow, it would not represent the end of Iranian nuclear ambition. Another facility is under construction a few miles south of Natanz, at Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, nicknamed Pickaxe mountain. It will be even more deeply fortified than Fordow. Without a dramatic change in US policy, or more ingenuity, then, the Fordow Paradox is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Iran's nuclear mountain will continue to loom large in Israeli thinking.
