Satellite images show Iran rebuilding nuclear-related site after Israeli strikes

The latest construction represents Iran’s second attempt to rebuild the facility in less than two years.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Iran is carrying out extensive reconstruction at Taleghan 2, a nuclear-related facility near Tehran damaged in strikes by Israel, with new satellite imagery showing heavy construction equipment and measures to strengthen the site against future aerial attacks.

Vantor Technologies imagery from September 13 shows construction underway at Taleghan 2 inside the Parchin military complex, approximately 30 kilometers southeast of Tehran, the Institute for Science and International Security said Thursday.

Iran has placed a large tarp over the damaged underground structure, blocking satellites and aerial reconnaissance from observing activity beneath it, according to the institute.

Elsewhere at the site, satellite images show bulldozers, dump trucks, cranes, concrete mixers and concrete pump trucks.

New concrete reinforcement has been installed along one side of the facility.

A similar structure observed in July on the opposite side now appears complete. The institute said the additions would increase protection against aerial blasts.

Reconstruction began in June, when work concentrated on three penetration holes left by bunker-buster weapons used three months earlier.

Satellite imagery examined in June and July showed workers excavating around the holes, installing reinforcing steel and preparing them for permanent concrete caps.

Taleghan 2 was first destroyed in Israeli strikes in October 2024. Reconstruction began in May 2025 before Israel struck the facility again in March 2026 during Operation Roaring Lion, leaving it heavily damaged.

The latest construction represents Iran’s second attempt to rebuild the facility in less than two years.

Taleghan 2 was used during Iran’s AMAD Plan, which Western governments and nuclear experts have linked to work on a nuclear explosive device in the early 2000s. The institute’s reconstruction of information from Iran’s nuclear archive found that the facility previously contained a specially designed high-explosive chamber and flash X-ray equipment for studying explosive compression.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said this week that inspectors have conducted almost no in-field verification in Iran for more than six months, apart from an inspection of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in June.

For more than a year, the IAEA has also been unable to maintain continuity of knowledge over previously declared enriched uranium stocks at facilities affected by military strikes.

Before access was lost, the agency estimated Iran held 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to as much as 60% purity.