During negotiations on Thursday regarding the Strait of Hormuz, the standoff between Tehran and Washington continues parallelly concerning Iranian enriched uranium.
- Reports in the American press suggest the possibility for Donald Trump to obtain what he calls “nuclear dust.”
- The United States has previously extracted uranium from another nation, such as in Kazakhstan, in a different context.
Seizing Iranian uranium, a mission impossible for Trump? Not so certain. Amid tensions between Tehran and Washington, the American president stated on Monday, April 20, that it would be “long and difficult” to unearth the 440 kilograms of highly enriched Iranian uranium, contrary to his earlier claims. These stocks, heavily damaged since American airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, are challenging to locate.
Iran also refuses any transfer of this “nuclear dust.” The Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esma’il Baghaei, quoted by the state television, reiterated on Friday that “just as Iranian soil is sacred to us, this issue is of great importance to us.” Trump’s optimism does not seem to be just rhetoric.
Counterpart for Iran
According to the American press, including an article from the Wall Street Journal on April 17, the American president is meticulously crafting a plan to obtain this 60%-enriched uranium, close to the 90% required for developing a nuclear bomb.
The deal proposed by Washington? Release $20 billion in frozen funds abroad for Tehran. This amount does not lift American economic sanctions; it serves as a preview. Iran hesitates, pushed by its Pakistani and Chinese partners.
Even if the agreement remains hypothetical, what logistics would it entail? As journalist Lucile Devillers explains in the video at the beginning of this article from the 24H Pujadas program on LCI, uranium is stored in tightly sealed metal casks. These massive cylinders can be excavated and transported with some precautions.
Their location remains unclear. Iranian cities like Isfahan, Natanz, or Fordo could be sheltering them, according to Spencer Faragasso, a researcher at the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis) with AFP. If a location is identified, the task remains perilous. Lucile Devillers specifies that to unearth these casks, digging up to 800 meters under the rock in “probably cracked” galleries would be necessary.
Risky Operation
The status of the stocks remains unknown since Iran denies access to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the ravaged nuclear sites. Uranium would be shipped to “Russia, as was the case during the 2015 agreement,” adds Lucile Devillers, “apparently excluding the United States or a Western country.” Their transport, on the other hand, poses no problem.
This would not be the first time the United States successfully unearthed uranium from another country. In Kazakhstan, in 1994 post-Cold War, the American military executed the “Sapphire” operation: 600 kilos of 90%-enriched uranium were evacuated. This entirely secretive mission, as highlighted by Le Monde, mobilized hundreds of people and colossal resources like three C-5 large transporter aircraft to carry the stocks to the Oak Ridge nuclear facility in Tennessee.
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This successful operation, however, unfolded in a much less tense context between the United States and Kazakhstan. During 1993, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakh president, sought American government assistance to rid the country of all traces of nuclear material produced under the USSR. In a more turbulent situation with Iran, the mission may not be impossible, just very delicate.
