Why Iran moves nuclear centrifuges to ‘Pickaxe Site’ as Trump issues warning to target it? Explained

Iran has reportedly shifted thousands of nuclear centrifuges into a heavily fortified underground complex near Natanz, known as Pickaxe Mountain, making the equipment significantly harder to destroy by airstrikes. According to a Wall Street Journal report, which cited US and Israeli officials, Israeli intelligence believes that Tehran made the transfer happen last autumn, months after the 12-day conflict in June 2025. The Pickaxe site was untouched during the recent US-Israeli strikes and has remained so since the intense aerial campaign began.

Why is the site so important?

The facility holds vital importance to Tehran due to its extraordinary depth, which is believed to be more than 300 feet beneath solid granite, considerably deeper than the enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordo that were bombed in 2025.

Moreover, The Wall Street Journal reported satellite imagery showing truck movement and construction activity around the mountain for close to 15 months, suggesting that Iran has been steadily building this site up as a long-term, strike-resistant location specifically.

Did Tehran move centrifuges to the site?

Yes, Iran has been reportedly moving centrifuges to the nuclear site. It is important to note that centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium and are the core hardware of any nuclear weapons capability. Relocating thousands of them into a site this well-protected effectively safeguards a critical part of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure from the kind of strikes that damaged its other facilities in 2025.

However, it is still unclear exactly where these centrifuges came from, though officials suspect they were moved from other Iranian nuclear sites, which means that Iran isn’t just building new capacity but actively relocating and protecting what it already has.

Was the IAEA denied access to the site?

Iran has reportedly not allowed IAEA inspectors into the Pickaxe complex, keeping all activities within the facility hidden from the agency. It is also important to note that IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in March that Iran had informed the agency back in 2021 of its intention to carry out nuclear activity at the site. That lack of international access has fuelled concern that the underground facility could be used for activity kept hidden from global monitoring.

Trump threatens Pickaxe as its next target

Trump has repeatedly hinted that the site could soon become an American target. Last week, he said Pickaxe was “a possible target for a nice big fat shot right near the front door,” adding the US would “probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon.” Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he escalated that warning further, saying the US would strike the site “pretty soon” and “very heavily,” while claiming Iran would be powerless to stop it.

Nate Swanson, who served as the National Security Council’s director for Iran under the Biden administration, called the reported activity at the undeclared site deeply concerning. “A covert breakout is the worst-case scenario,” he said, referring to the possibility of secretly building a nuclear weapon. “We don’t know what Iran’s intentions are, but the fact that we can’t verify this site underscores how problematic the status quo is.”

Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear programme serves only civilian purposes. However, it has enriched uranium to levels just below weapons-grade, a threshold experts say has no real civilian application and has long alarmed Western governments and nuclear watchdogs.

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