IAEA's Grossi says Iranian Pickaxe Mountain seeing new construction activity - report

On Friday, US President Donald Trump threatened that he may soon order strikes against the site, with the US military currently developing a new bunker-buster munition for the task.

Satellite imagery has picked up construction activity at Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday.

According to Grossi, the IAEA has not yet inspected the fortified underground site, which sits just south of Tehran's Natanz uranium-enrichment plant.

Grossi's comments follow a CNN report earlier on Thursday, which published images allegedly showing the construction activity at the tunnel complex.

The report cited analysts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank, who said the activity at the site "has shifted from active excavation toward probably internal construction and continued exterior reinforcement.”

The CSIS analysts note that, according ot the imagery, the site “is not yet capable of enrichment work, if that is the intended purpose.”

Trump threatens to bomb site as US develops new weapon for task

On Friday, US President Donald Trump threatened that he may soon order strikes against the site, with the US military currently developing a new bunker-buster munition that could potentially target more deeply buried facilities.

CNN reported that the US awarded a prototype contract for the new munition, which would succeed the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), in September 2025.